Racine Bible Church Blog: Spencer DeBlog http://www.racinebible.org Blog: Spencer DeBlog Copyright 2010Racine Bible Church en-us 60 Be an encourager - a post from Amy http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008627 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008627 Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:22:09 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

What can I say without sounding like I am bragging? God gave me a great wife. Amy loves the Lord. She loves the church. She has an eye for beauty and a heart for expressing it well. Here is something she wrote recently. I hope you like it as much as I do.

 

 

I've been thinking about how I can be an encourager to all the faithful people who surround me in ministry, doing all the things they do in fantastically gifted ways. I got started thinking about this when someone asked me what I thought about it, the other day. Here's what I came up with.

 

1. Be what you want others to become in these three areas:

 

a. love for God

 

b. love for believers

 

c. love for the lost.

 

I have to do what it takes to be growing in these things so that I understand how to take them where they're going. This makes me a good example and keeps me from expecting too little or too much from others.

 

2. Expect a lot out of people, spiritually. God does. Pray to that end. I might not make it my aim to talk about this directly with them, but by my example, what I talk about, the things I praise, and how I pray, I give them ideas of what they could be for the kingdom. The whole time, I'm asking God to do more in and through them than they ever expected.

 

3. Make long, deep, scripture-filled prayer a priority; private prayer for them and corporate prayer with them. Always exemplify biblical, God-exalting prayer.

 

4. Let others hear you exalt Christ in all your conversations. Praise him to others. Show them that what you believe about him gives you affection and admiration for him. Let people see Christ in you, in how you live and speak.

 

5. Ask people how you can pray for them. Remember it. Actually pray for them. Ask them how it's going next time you see them.

 

6. Really listen to the person who is talking to you. Shut others out and graciously don't let people interrupt. You might not get another chance to hear this person for a while.

 

7. Don't instruct people, inspire them. It's the difference between spouting off what you know to be recognized and speaking to someone with hopes for what they can be in Christ. It's the difference between instructing others and amazing them by showing them the incomparable Christ. It's the difference between saying, "obey, obey, obey!" and showing them a loving God who wants to use them and how obedience is the vehicle to get them to that usefulness in his kingdom. Appeal to their wants as much as their will. One must choose or will to obey, but one wants to obey when they are shown the magnanimous and majestic Triune God.

 

8. Demonstrate a strong belief in the doctrines and deep truths of Scripture by living them out in faith. Not complaining shows faith in God's sovereignty. Not talking about yourself too much shows them the humility and love of Christ. Not worrying shows faith in God's omnipotence. Talk about Christ being God and man and why that's so necessary. Talk about his attributes and how they effect your everyday life.

 

9. Be hard on yourself and easy on others. Be very gracious. Always remember how much of a sinner you are before you ever consider confronting anyone. Commit that matter to prayer for a long time before you mention it to them. Ask God to bring it to their mind without you. Then if you need to, address it directly.

 

10. Never, ever say negative things about people behind their back.

 

11. Never assume you know the heart or motivations of someone else. Give them credit for the best possible motive in every scenario.

 

12. Praise eternal things in people more than temporal: for example their gifts, how God uses them, something you learned from them.

 

13. Learn from the aged and the wise.

 

14. Expect great things from God every single day. Talk about it with people, pray expectant prayers, and live like you know God will accomplish great things in his kingdom.

 

15. Love people more than things and personal convenience. Give your stuff away, your time, your energies, knowing God supplies them for his glory and can fill you back up to overflowing.

 

I don't do any of these very well, but I think it's a good start to what God expects of me in ministry. Hope it's a little helpful.

 

Matt. 10:25 Eph. 3:20 Eph 6:18 Phil. 1:21 1Pet. 3:18

 

Luke 6:42 Is. 40:8 Prov. 13:20 1 Cor. 13:7 Jude 1:24

 

Matt. 5:41

 

 
]]> Weekend Top Ten http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008623 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008623 Tue, 07 Sep 2010 06:29:39 PST Spencer DeBlog  


10) Repetitive Reading. 

I am really enjoying my repeated reading of James. Simply reading the same book of the Bible over and over and over again yields so much understanding! Interpretation is far more accurate when the entire context is in mind through repeated exposure. All of our ABFs begin James this Sunday. I plan on giving one sermon through the whole book as a kick-off to the ABFs this Sunday.

 

9) Gospel Opportunities.

I heard from 5 or 6 people this weekend that they have had good opportunities to share the gospel with friends, family, baristas, mechanics and neighbors.

 

8) Biking. 

We have not ridden bikes in… I don’t know how long. It has been years. We bought new bikes on Saturday. We rode them 26 miles on Monday. Met friends in Chicago and rode the Lake Shore Pathway from the north side all through downtown past the pier, the museums and Soldier Field.

 

7) Singing Pirates. 

The unbelievably hokey, incredibly goofy singing pirates show at Navy Pier where we stopped for lunch.

 

6) Family Discussion.

I asked the family to read this article (Cumulative Daily Decisions, Courage in a Cause, and a Life of Endurance, by Randy Alcorn) and we discussed it at dinner. Great insights into developing Christian character. You can get a PDF of the entire book at the desiringgod website.

 

5) Praying with Leaders.

All of our Adult Bible Fellowship leaders have been meeting for training. This weekend we dedicated time to prayer for the ABF ministry. Prayer with those who are really doing the work of the Lord together, shoulder to shoulder, are always the most excellent prayer times.

 

4) Reading Carly’s Blog.

 

3) Party at Culvers.

I mentioned in our Sunday services that we should all go to Culvers after church Sunday night. We did. There were literally no seats left in the entire restaurant. It was noisy. The flavor was cookie dough craving. I walked around talking and laughing with middle school guys, elderly widows and everyone in-between. Loved it.

 

2) We Need Each Other.

Sunday’s sermon consisted of four reasons, from Ephesians 4, why we need each other. I enjoyed talking with so many RBC members who are already fully invested in these truths. I loved chatting with some for whom this teaching is really motivating more consistent commitment.

 

1) The Goldfish Sneeze.

In between services I wandered in to the four year old classroom. It was promotion Sunday and I heard the four year old class was very, very full. I sat at the little table with the kids. The little girl next to me got a mouth full of goldfish crackers, turned toward me, blinked her big brown eyes, and let out an enormous sneeze. Gotta send that suit to the cleaners.
]]> The Devil's Dictionary http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008616 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008616 Fri, 03 Sep 2010 18:19:39 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

On my kindle I have been clicking around in Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary.

 
It is a very clever take on the self-serving way we redefine things in our lives.


 

Here are a few that cracked me up:


 

ACQUAINTANCE, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous.

ADMIRATION, n. Our polite recognition of another's resemblance to ourselves.

ALLIANCE, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.

 
SELF-ESTEEM, n. An erroneous appraisement.

SELF-EVIDENT, adj. Evident to one's self and to nobody else.

SELFISH, adj. Devoid of consideration for the selfishness of others. 
 
TALK, v.t. To commit an indiscretion without temptation, from an impulse without purpose.

 
]]> why are we so content with discontentment? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008612 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008612 Thu, 02 Sep 2010 08:15:20 PST Spencer DeBlog  


We are so used to responding to difficulties with anxiety or discontentment that we consider these normal reactions to life’s circumstances. That just points out how subtle and acceptable these sins have become to us. 

Jerry Bridges

Ouch!


How can we possibly consider this without owning our failures, confessing our sins, and asking God to change us from the inside out?


Ask God to change your heart.  Remove distrust.  Fill it with faith.  Ask Him to change your mind.  Remove personal desire for control.  Fill it with delight in God's sovereignty.


 

]]> Hast Thou No Scar? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008606 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008606 Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:20:40 PST Spencer DeBlog  



Hast thou no scar?

No hidden scar on foot, or side or hand?

I hear thee sung as mighty in the land,

I hear them hail thy bright ascendent star

Hast thou no scar?



Hast thou no wound?

Yet I was wounded by the archers, spent,

Leaned me against a tree to die; and rent

By ravening beasts that encompassed me, I swooned;

Hast thou no wound?



No wound? No scar?

Yet, as the master shall the servant be

And pierced are the feet that follow Me;

But thine are whole: can he have followed far

Who has nor wound nor scar?



Amy Carmichael


]]> love one another and the world will know http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008599 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008599 Tue, 31 Aug 2010 07:01:20 PST Spencer DeBlog   


 


The church that convinces people that there is a God is a church that manifests what only God can do, that is unite people in Christian love.

There is nothing that convinces people God exists or that awakens cravings for Him like the discovery of Christian brothers and sisters who love one another.

The sight of loving unity in the church arrests the non Christian. It crashes through his intellect, stirs up his conscience and creates a longing in his heart because he was created to enjoy the very thing that the church is demonstrating. John White

 

 

Acts 2:44-47

John 13:34-35

John 17:20-23

 
]]> Fellowship http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008598 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008598 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:26:00 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Fellowship is a powerful force.

 

Just take a look at what it does in Acts 2:42-47!

 

I quoted this yesterday in our services:

 

JI Packer -- What elevates true fellowship far above what the world would call friendship and belonging is simply this:  Our relationship with fellow believers is a demonstration of our union with Christ, and the dynamics of this fellowship with others are dictated and defined by the fact that we are new creatures – loved, chosen, redeemed, forgiven, justified, and adopted into the family of God by God Himself through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Let us be clear, then, that the basis for fellowship with other Christians is the fellowship we have with God through Christ. This is the emphasis in 1 John 1:3, “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” The supernatural quality of the relationship Christians have with each other is because of what we share in Christ.

 

 

Is fellowship proving to be a powerful force in your life?  Why or why not?

 

Do your relationships – with people in the church – prove the reality of God’s relationship with you in Christ?

 

Do you love others as God in Christ has loved you?

 

Are you able to forgive others as God in Christ has forgiven you?

 

Does the grace of God in Christ toward you enable you to be patient and gracious toward others?

 

Is serving others attractive to you?

 
]]> What I am praying about and working on right now http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008596 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008596 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 10:26:13 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I am praying for gospel growth in depth – the gospel going deeper into each life through change, obedience and Christian love.

 

I am praying for gospel growth in breadth – the gospel going further out into our city and our communities through our speech and conduct.

 

RBC is taking a major step toward gospel growth with the launch of Adult Bible Fellowships this September. These smaller groups within the larger body of believers revolve around five main purposes:

 

Fellowship

Bible Teaching

Outreach

Pastoral Care

Leadership Development

 

These changes are all about gospel growth. We want the gospel penetrating deeper into the lives of RBC members. We long to see the gospel penetrating future out into our community so that more members are added to our number daily.

 
]]> The prettifying of evolution http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008590 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008590 Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:38:45 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Dr. Albert Mohler has been interacting with evangelicals and Catholics who believe and promote evolutionary theory.

 

I really appreciate Dr. Mohler’s polemical writing on this subject. He is careful and clear about what his opponents believe. He is insightful and thorough about what is at stake.

 

This is from his column today -

 

 

The American literary critic Frederick Crews once spoke of defenders of evolutionary theory who attempt to make Darwinism appear more congenial to the Christian faith than it truly is. These defenders, Crews wrote, present a vision of Darwin and Darwinism that “is often prettified to make it safe for doctrines that he himself was sadly compelled to leave behind.” The prettifying of evolution continues, even in today’s edition of The Wall Street Journal.

 

Current mainstream models of evolution simply do not allow for the notion of a divinely-created soul. As a matter of fact, the reigning physicalist and materialist understandings that underpin evolutionary theory do not really leave any room for the existence of the soul at all.

For evangelicals, the direct lesson is that any accommodation to evolutionary theory comes with huge and inescapable theological costs. There is no way to affirm an historical Adam while holding to any mainstream model of evolution, and there is no way to affirm the Gospel without an historical Adam.

Furthermore, accommodations to evolutionary theory never end. There will always be “unfinished business” that will demand further theological concessions.

This is where the prettifying of Darwinism hits the wall. The real meaning of evolution’s central doctrines runs directly counter to the central doctrines of Christianity. Accommodation with evolution is a disastrous doctrinal strategy.

 


 

 
]]> I love Vin http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008587 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008587 Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:05:08 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

This morning I listened to a podcast story about Vin Scully. He is going to be 83 and he is calling games for his 62nd season with the Los Angeles Dodgers (though they weren’t Los Angeles when he started).

 


 

Listen to a tape of him calling Sandy Koufax’s perfect game in 1965. I dare you to try not to get caught up in the moment. It is irresistible. Not because of the sports drama but because of the moving narrative that Scully creates with his words. 

 

I thanked the Lord this morning for Vincent Scully’s talent and skill. It is a joy to listen to or watch someone who is a master at their craft. I don’t know Mr. Scully’s spiritual state. I pray that He knows or will soon come to know Jesus as Savior. And I also pray that God would let me speak with that kind of clarity, creativity, passion and contagious engagement every Sunday until I am 83!
]]> Blind Spots http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008585 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008585 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:58:52 PST Spencer DeBlog  



 

Stating the obvious, we don’t see blind spots.  That’s why they’re called blind spots.  So, rather than being defensive when someone points something out, let’s listen to advice and accept instruction – - that in the end we can be wise (Proverbs 19:20).

 

Proverbs 17:10 – A rebuke goes deeper into a man of understanding than a hundred blows into a fool.  That is, a man of understanding doesn’t defensively deny blind spots when they come his way.  He allows them to shape his character.

 

(Taken from an article by Pastor and Author Chris Brauns)
]]> a few tweets http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008582 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008582 Tue, 24 Aug 2010 06:49:58 PST Spencer DeBlog  


From my Twitter:

 

 

I admit it I tear up just about every time I read Genesis 29:20. I love that verse.

 

 

So many good things compete for my time & energy & attention. But Jesus (His Person and Work) is the best thing.

 

 

After church today man in his 80s told me "I am so glad God is giving us a vision for outreach. We need to keep growing!"

 

 

You are going to be what you are now becoming. Are your choices bringing light or darkness? Proverbs 4.18
]]> Trying something different http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008577 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008577 Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:13:09 PST Spencer DeBlog  


So I am doing something completely different on Sunday.

It might turn out to be a bad idea.



 

So why not blog about it ahead of time?



 

The main points of my sermon are coming right out of the journal I kept with me in Turkey and Greece.

 

Let me assure you that I am not planning to preach on my deepest, darkest diary secrets.  I suppose I should also assure you I will be preaching the Word. I will. But not like I normally do.



 

The points of personal application came out of Scriptural meditation and my experiences with the brave souls on the mission field.



 

They came out of considering our current ministry (strengths, weaknesses) and comparing it to what I saw on the field and read about in the Word.



 

As I have been prayerfully reflecting upon these points, I am convinced that they will benefit more than just me.



 

So, Lord willing, I will turn them into the points of the sermon on Sunday.
]]> I need to change http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008573 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008573 Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:37:53 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I came back from Turkey deeply convicted. 

The issue? Evangelism. Compassion. Boldness.

I have got to change and become more like Christ.

Love as He loved. Find them and care for them and reach them as He did.

 

So many good things compete for my time and energy and attention. 

But evangelism is the best thing. 

 

So many excuses sound perfectly plausible and reasonable. But Jesus blows them all away.

 

To be an effective witness, I need to care more about the world's opinion of Jesus than its opinion of me. Otherwise I will be too busy protecting myself to proclaim Him.

 

To be an effective witness, I need to care more about others with the compassion of Christ than my own felt-needs with passion for myself. Otherwise I will be too self-absorbed and self-obsessed to be of any good to anyone.

 

To be an effective witness I simply have to die. Die to self. Die to worldly appetites. And then I have to rise again. Rise again to live in Christ. Rise again to life Heaven’s life.

 
]]> The Ministries of the Word http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008571 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008571 Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:17:24 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I just completed the notes for this week’s ABF leadership training.

 

Here is something I dropped into those notes a few minutes ago. Take a moment and begin considering the implications these verbs should have for your conversations and relationships.

 

The New Testament uses thirty-three verbs to describe a great variety of forms of ministry of the Word.

 

We can categorize the word range as follows:

 

Words of Information: teach, instruct, make known, remind

 

Words of Declaration: preach, proclaim, cry out, testify, bear witness, declare, write, read, pass on, set forth

 

Words of Exhortation: call, denounce, warn, rebuke, command, give judgment, encourage, appeal, urge, ask

 

Words of Persuasion: explain, make clear, prove, guard, debate, contend, refute, reason, persuade, convince, insist, defend, confirm

 

Words of Conversation: say, speak, talk, answer, reply, give answer

 

(Peter Adam, Speaking God’s Words : A Practical Theology of Expository Preaching IV Press, 1996.)

]]> Stuck in sin? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008569 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008569 Tue, 17 Aug 2010 08:49:40 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Stuck in sin?

Do you feel reluctant to pray?

When you know you have stepped into disobedience…

When you have let your heart grow cold…

Are you slow to get together with God?

 

When you have neglected His Word…

When you have tried to hide from His presence…

Doesn’t it seem easier to just stay away? 

 

It can be hard to get back on track. Our sin can make us feel we need to keep away from Christ. But isn’t that exactly wrong? Isn’t our sin why we must flee to Christ?

 

M’Cheyne had this feeling. And he knew what to do with it:

 

“I feel when I have sinned an immediate reluctance to go to Christ. I am ashamed to go. I feel as if it would not do to go, as if it were making Christ the minister of sin, to go straight from the swine-trough to the best robe, and a thousand other excuses. But I am persuaded they are all lies direct from hell.

John argues the opposite way—‘If any man sins, we have an advocate with the Father;’ Jeremiah 3:1 and a thousand other scriptures are against it. I am sure there is neither peace nor safety from deeper sin, but in going directly to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is God’s way of peace and holiness. It is folly to the world and to the beclouded heart, but it is the way.”

—Robert Murray M’Cheyne
]]> Leadership http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008560 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008560 Thu, 12 Aug 2010 07:35:45 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 



 


 

One of the things I spoke about to the missionaries in Turkey was this simple question.


 

What is the biggest challenge you face in ministry?
 


 

Is it radical/violent Islam?


 

Is it governmental repression in this country?


 

Is it false believers in the church who sow discord and persecution?


 

Is it lack of support from your sending churches?


 

It is your own marriage and family?

 
These may all be challenges but not one of them is the greatest challenge.
 


 

The greatest problem in your ministry is you.


 

My greatest challenge in life and ministry is me.

 
Everyone at the conference seemed to agree with me in this assessment.
 
 
Our problem is...
 
 
We fear man's opinion and don't really care about God's approval.


 

We crave our own comfort and ease rather than completion of the course.


 

We deal with problems in ways that are problematic and carnal rather than gracious and spiritual.


 

We try to squeeze out of other people and events what we should only be finding in Christ.


 

We crave success for our own egotistical fulfillment.


 

We fear failure from the core of our own proud refusal to ever look like a loser.
 


 

True leadership begins when I fully and freely place myself under the leadership of the Son of God, the strong power of the Spirit and submit to the loving plans of the Father.
 
 
I lead by following Him.


 

He leads me so that I can lead.


 

I humble myself beneath His mighty hand and then He raises me up to be bold for Him and in His name.
 
 
So... what is your biggest challenge in life and ministry?


 

And... what is God calling you to do about it right now?


 



 
]]> The UnBeatitudes http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008559 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008559 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 08:30:56 PST Spencer DeBlog I am moved and humbled by these marvelous thoughts from Ray Ortlund at the Gospel Coalition:


 



Congratulations to the entitled, for they grab what they want.

Congratulations to the carefree, for they shall be comfortable.

Congratulations to the pushy, for they shall win.

Congratulations to the greedy, for they shall climb the food chain.

Congratulations to the vengeful, for they shall be feared.

Congratulations to those who don’t get caught, for they shall look good.

Congratulations to the argumentative, for they shall get in the last word.

Congratulations to the popular, for this world lies at their feet.

 

The gospel of Jesus is more than a few handy tips for improving our lives this week.  It is a new outlook on everything, with a glorious future renewing the creation through his death and resurrection. 

 

But he is not the only one making us promises.  The world has its own version of events, its own eschatology, its own promises of reward.  We must choose.  And either way, we will be living by faith.

But have you ever met one person who believed this world’s unBeatitudes and came to the end a satisfied, radiant, wise person?  Even one?

]]> A few more pics http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008558 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008558 Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:16:39 PST Spencer DeBlog I am back in the office today after quite some time away.


The mission trip to Turkey was great.  I watched our team members manifest true Christian service in the power of the Spirit.


After that Amy and I were able to enjoy some time in the Greek Isles and Athens with my mother and father.


Here are a few more pictures.


With Drew and Bryce at Hieropolis.


With John at Ephesus.


With Amy at Colossae.





 

]]> Turkey Team is back http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008546 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008546 Thu, 05 Aug 2010 08:10:32 PST Spencer DeBlog The team made it home and each member will be so happy to share with you as you see them.
Amy and I are taking a few more days away and, Lord willing, will be with you next Sunday.
]]> Saturday in Turkey http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008530 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008530 Sat, 31 Jul 2010 01:00:00 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Saturday in Turkey.

 

We drove back to Ankara from the conference site yesterday. I rode with Brian and we talked for four hours about ministry, missions, Bible interpretation, prayer, vision and leadership. What a greatly gifted brother he is. I learn a lot in my conversations with him.

 

Today we are going to rest a little, do laundry and see some of Brian’s ministry in action here in Ankara. A few of our team members are a bit sick today so they might just stay in all day and rest. Nothing too serious just the typical travelling stomach issues.

 

The team worked so hard at the conference. They could use a rest day today. I kind of feel like my job for the last week was the easiest. I preached daily and then prayed and talked ministry with the CS workers. The rest of the team ran around the whole conference center all day every day re-creating ancient Rome for VBS, discipling JH and HS students, running games, preparing crafts, and all sorts of stuff.

 

Tomorrow I will preach at church here and our team will lead in music and worship. Then after church we start the eight hour drive over to Ephesus and the seven churches of Asia Minor.

((No pictures here today.  But if you are on facebook Bryce, Amy P,. and Amy D. are posting new pictures up there)).


 

]]> Friday in Turkey http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008528 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008528 Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:50:48 PST Spencer DeBlog Today is the final day of the conference here.


I am preaching on the Nazarite Vow in Numbers 6 and challenging the workers to make specific committments in their ministries.


After morning worship, Terri and the VBS team will bring the kids in to share their songs and verses with the parents. 


We are driving back to Ankara today.  Spending the day with Phipps Saturday and then our team will provide music and preaching at the International Protestant Church of Ankara on Sunday.


Thanks for your prayers.  Pray that each of the workers would be enabled to make and keep some specific committments to resist and turn away from that which makes them ineffective in minsitry.  Pray also that they would be emboldened to make and keep new committments to bold, courageous service as a result of our time in the Word this week.


 

]]> Wednesday in Turkey http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008523 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008523 Wed, 28 Jul 2010 02:12:26 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Great morning this morning with the conference. We sang “Before the Throne” and “My Redeemer’s Love for Me.” 

Amy and Drew did “Thy Mercy” (Caedmon’s version lyrics by Watts) with guitar and harmonica.

 

I preached from Numbers 10 and 11 about complaining and faith. When it comes to conquering complaining we overcome it with the gospel. As Jerry Bridges is so fond of saying “All of our problems are overcome by believing the gospel.”

In the gospel I have received so much more than I ever deserved. I have been delivered from the affliction I deserved and have received adoption as God’s own child.

I sensed that the missions workers here were convicted and helped by the Word this morning. 

Here a are few new pics...



Rick and John. These two are like Martha Stewart and Julia Child when it comes to craft time and snack time.


 



Drew teaching the guys. They are covering “The Enemy Within” which is a great study on sin and temptation.


 



Amy with a couple of her small group girls.


 

]]> Teaching Seminar http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008521 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008521 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:44:31 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I just finished the seminar on effective Bible teaching. 

 

They asked great questions. I really enjoyed our interaction. Among other things, they asked…

 

What about difficult or obscure passages?

What are the risks and benefits of sequentially preaching through a book as opposed to going from topic to topic?

Does your definition of expository preaching also apply in a context of non-literate and non-western people?

Talk through the process of finding trans-temporal application principles in an Old Testament text.

What are the best books you have read recently?

 

Here are a few of the notes I used…

 

John Calvin “The office of preacher is committed to the church for no other purpose but this one. That God’s voice may be heard.”

 

Definition:

Expository preaching is the communication of the Biblical message, found through faithful Biblical exegesis, which the Holy Spirit applies to the life of the preacher and through him to his hearers.

 

Between Two Worlds:

Our reading of the Bible should not be merely historical (without contemporary application) or merely contemporary (with no regard to its historical context and meaning). Rather we should reflect the two audiences God had in mind: original hearers of the words, and those for whom the words are preserved, including ourselves. Good preaching will be firmly grounded in both eras, understanding the words in their biblical context and applying them today as God intended.

 

Recommended Resources on Expository Preaching:

 

Toward an Exegetical Theology, Walt Kaiser

Rediscovering Expository Preaching, John MacArthur

The Supremacy of God in Preaching, John Piper

Preparing Expository Sermons, Ramesh Richard

Preaching that Changes Lives, Michael Fabarez
]]> updated pictures 2 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008520 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008520 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:15:35 PST Spencer DeBlog


 



 


]]> updated pictures from ankara http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008519 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008519 Tue, 27 Jul 2010 02:13:28 PST Spencer DeBlog These pictures are from our first day here when we toured Ankara.


Ankara is a city of 4-5 million.  We climbed up into the ancient castle, saw a mosque which was built in the 1100s, shopped in the crowded streets and ended the day praying for the many souls in this city.




]]> Turkey updates http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008517 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008517 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 06:54:39 PST Spencer DeBlog I am walking over to preach the first message in ten minutes.


Thanks for praying for me. 


I will post short updates to my twitter as I am able.


http://twitter.com/SpencerDeBurgh


 

]]> At the conference center http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008516 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008516 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:31:48 PST Spencer DeBlog  


We are here at the conference center.

 

The missionary families to whom we will be ministering arrive this afternoon.

 

So we are spending the day preparing for children’s VBS and youth ministry and worship singing times.

 

We appreciate your prayers. Pray that the Spirit would use our service to strengthen and embolden these families for their church planting ministries here in Turkey.

 

This is the main hotel building. It is built in the traditional style with separate entrances for the men and women.

 




 


Part of our team meeting with hotel staff about snack times. I think they are deciding whether or not is a good idea to give skewers of fruit to the children.


 

Music team practicing. I love singing with believers all over the world.

Jesus will be praised in every nation, tribe and tongue!



 

 

]]> Pictures 2 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008515 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008515 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:48:04 PST Spencer DeBlog correction - these are pics of our team prepping for the conference.
 


 


 

]]> Pictures http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008514 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008514 Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:45:15 PST Spencer DeBlog correction - these are pics of the conference center.


 


 


 

 


 

 


 

 

]]> Ankara http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008513 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008513 Sat, 24 Jul 2010 10:07:48 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Turkey mission trip arrived safely in Ankara.

 

Our team is John, Terri, Phyllis, Bryce, Drew, Amy, Spencer, Amy, Rick and Gail.

 

Lightning held us up on the tarmac in Chicago for over an hour. So when we landed in Munich… our plane was supposed to be taking off for Turkey in ten minutes!

We raced through the airport and Lufthansa held the plane for us. It was sketchy but we made it!

 

Now we are at the Phipps home, sitting on the balcony, eating baklava and hearing all about what is happening in the ministry. So many Iranians and Turks receiving Bibles and some are coming to Christ. It is an honor to be here with servants like these.

 

I will update on twitter and here as I am able during the week.

 

]]> Mission Trip to Turkey http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008510 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008510 Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:13:45 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

RBC is sending a team to Turkey leaving on Friday, July 23.  The team will minister at the missions conference for the Phipps and other workers serving with Christar.

 

We are providing Bible teaching for all the missions workers at their annual conference. The team is also providing VBS/Youth Camp teaching and activities for the children/teens. 

 

Would you please pray for our team? Pray that each missionary and each child or student would be challenged and strengthened as we serve them with the Word of God by the power of the Spirit.

 

 
]]> A prayer of blessing http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008495 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008495 Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:44:49 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Adam Clarke, 200 years ago, paraphrased the blessing of Numbers 6 well in praying this way for his congregation:

 

 

May God speak good unto thee, by giving thee his excellent promises! May he preserve thee in the possession of all the good thou hast, and from all the evil with which thou art threatened!

May the Holy Trinity illuminate thy heart, giving thee the true knowledge of thyself and of thy Maker; and may he show thee his graciousness in pardoning thy sins, and supporting thy soul!

May God give thee communion with the Father, Son, and Spirit, with a constant sense of his approbation; and grant thee prosperity in thy soul, and in all thy earthly affairs.
]]> the meeting of the board http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008486 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008486 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 10:11:38 PST Spencer DeBlog  


We met from 6 to 10 last night. Four hours is a looong meeting. The first 2 hours is the entire board (deacons, elders, treasurers, secretaries) and the second 2 hours is separate deacon and elder meetings.

 

Here are some highlights from the meeting of the bored board.

 

 

Praying and deciding about helping Drew P. get seminary training and head into ministry.

 

Testimony from one of our deacons, Clyde, who recently has had loss of work, a serious car crash, wife in surgery for her knee, and that surgery complicated by additional serious heart issues.

His testimony in the midst of all these trials. “I have so much, so very much, to be thankful for. I deserve nothing. God has given me everything. God has been so good to us!”

 

We planned for the upcoming visit that our missionaries, the Kamunges will be making to Racine.

 

Talking about Cameron W. heading to Moody for ministry education and training.

 

I am also thinking of two items that qualify as potential difficulties. I will be praying aggressively about both of these and mention them so that you might do the same.

 

We found out that medical insurance for our staff is going up, way-up, again. The board has made it a priority to provide good benefits to our staff. But the prices keep rising at a surprising rate. We are looking for to a new, lower-cost option or some great new provision to pay the costs.

 

We found out that a very critical role in CrossWalk (our Sunday AM children’s ministry) will not be filled by the person we thought it would. This position provides training and support and really moves us forward in two ways. First, it improves the quality of our ministry to children and their families.  Second, it enables the entire church to benefit from Darien’s ministry by freeing him from some things that are better done by someone with different gifts than his.  I am praying that God will provide the right person to step into this role. Pray with me.  Contact me if you think you might be the answer to these prayers.

 

Really good chewy oatmeal cookies. They were complimented nicely with the chilled raspberry lemonade. A fine pairing for the discriminating palates of the board members.

 

Our Bible study time in John 10:1-5 -

 

The shepherd needs to lead the whole flock forward. The shepherd also needs to take time to care for each one. How can this be done? Only be a team of shepherd with various gifts and relationships.

 

Jesus mentions the voice three times. What is the significance of this repetition? And of all the things he could have said about shepherds and sheep, why does he emphasize the voice so repeatedly?

 

The shepherd walks ahead of the sheep. This is leadership which sets an example and pays the price personally. The shepherd does not push/prod from behind but leads from the front. The sheep know his voice (they identify with him and trust him).

 

I remain thankful, so thankful, for the elders and deacons God has brought together in this flock. They are evidence of God’s love for the people of Racine Bible Church.
]]> Benedictions http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008484 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008484 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:15:25 PST Spencer DeBlog I enjoyed learning and teaching fromNumbers 6:22-27.


 

Here are some more common Benedictions


 

Romans 15:13


 

 


 

2 Corinthians 13:14


 

 


 

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24


 

 


 

Hebrews 13:20-21


 

 


 

Elizabeth Eliot’s biography of Amy Carmichael:


 

 


 

My the Lord grant you


 

The love that leads the way


 

The faith that nothing can dismay


 

The hope no disappointments tire


 

And the passion that burns like fire.


 

 


 

From the hymn:


 

 


 

May the Lord our help in ages past


 

And our hope for years to come


 

Be your guard while troubles last


 

And lead you to his eternal throne
]]> Bible Reading System http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008482 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008482 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 09:44:09 PST Spencer DeBlog  


The Bible reading system I mentioned last night during Q and A with Marquis Laughlin --



 

Take the time to read the introduction. It is quite convincing. The system has you reading ten chapters a day in such a way that you become familiar with all of Scripture.



 

Here it is up on Scribd




 

The system also has a facebook page




 



 



 
]]> nothing here http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008409 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008409 Fri, 09 Jul 2010 18:09:56 PST Spencer DeBlog I will be off of the blog for a week, maybe more. 


I highly recommend the practice of taking a week, maybe more, away from computer screens this Summer.


 


 


 

]]> Bible Study http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008396 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008396 Wed, 07 Jul 2010 08:18:42 PST Spencer DeBlog  


This is from a very helpful article up on Challies.com.

I printed out the whole thing to talk about with the family over dinner.

 


 

It is filled with great advice on the Bible Study and particularly realistic about the times we don’t feel like it but know we should do it anyway.

 

 

Now I’d like to make a rather practical observation. A general desire to know and to study the Bible does not necessarily mean that we will always be overflowing with enthusiasm to do so. When we say that we desire to study the Bible we can mean two things. We can mean that we spring out of bed in the morning eager to rush to a comfortable chair and spend some time drinking in the Word of God. Though I think all Christians long to be like this, the sad fact is that very few are. The reason I am writing these words today is that I have felt little of this enthusiasm lately. I’ve found myself dreading times in the Word far more than I’ve eager anticipated them. And I hate this, I hate my lack of interest, my lack of passion and desire. And yet it seems to be where I am right now.

 

However, even if we do not have an overflowing passion of this nature, we can still desire to read the Bible in a less passionate (but no less sincere) way, knowing that the Word feeds us, that it tends to our souls, and that we would be remiss to ignore times of Bible study. Even on days when our hearts are not pounding with excitement as we turn to our Scripture reading, we can still desire to read the Bible. We can do so out of some duty rather than full delight. In either case, we are right to turn to the Bible and to dedicate ourselves to reading and studying it.

 

My encouragement is not to wait until your heart longs for nothing more than to study the Bible before you open the cover of the Book. Rather, commit today to beginning to take time every day to read it. Ask God to give you the discipline to do so.
]]> Before noon today... http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008390 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008390 Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:47:00 PST Spencer DeBlog  


As I type it is about 11:30 on Tuesday morning.

 

So far today I have…

 

Had a good honest accountability time with two of our elders as we broke into smaller groups at the close of our morning meeting. Had a long, strong prayer time where we really lifted each other up to the Lord.

 

Had breakfast with two men who are my spiritual leaders. They asked me clear questions about my heart, my family and what is going on in my life.

 

Answered a great email from a mom in our congregation who took our Sunday evening parenting class and has some personal application questions about the Biblical principles we covered in class. I love emails and phone calls like that! I love her desire to apply God’s Word in her situation.

 

Heard a tearful-from-the-heart thank you from an unemployed brother who received some assistance from the benevolence fund.

 

Talked with John about a few details on our trip to Turkey. We leave in just a couple weeks.

 

Deleted about twenty junk emails trying to sell me ridiculous things. They keep coming! How can I get them to stop?!?

 

Felt like it was Monday instead of Tuesday approximately 41 times.

 

Met with Darien about a couple of matters we are working on together. His heart for God, God’s Word and God's people comes through so strong.

 

 
]]> My prayer for our homes and churches http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008379 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008379 Tue, 06 Jul 2010 07:37:10 PST Spencer DeBlog O breath of God, come fill this place;

Revive our hearts to know Your grace;

And from our slumber make us rise

That we may know the Risen Christ.


O word of God, so clear and true,

Renew our minds to trust in You;

And give to us the bread of life

That we may know the Risen Christ.


O love of God, so unrestrained,

Refresh our souls in Jesus’ name.

Let us reflect Your sacrifice

That we may know the Risen Christ.


May God the Father, God the Son,

And God the Spirit make us one.

In holiness let us unite

That we may know the Risen Christ.


- Keith & Kristyn Getty


 

]]> Rudyard Kipling http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008363 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008363 Thu, 01 Jul 2010 14:42:02 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I love Rudyard Kipling.

Most of us think of the Jungle Book as a Disney cartoon. 

But Kipling’s book is filled with intelligence and humor. I re-read it recently and enjoyed it immensely.

 

Consider this poem:

 

His spots are the joy of the Leopard: his horns are the Buffalo’s pride.

Be clean, for the strength of the hunter is known by the gloss of his hide.

 

If ye find that the Bullock can toss you, or the heavy-browed Sambhur can gore;

Ye need not stop work to inform us: we knew it ten seasons before.

 

Oppress not the cubs of the stranger, but hail them as Sister and Brother,

For though they are little and fubsy, it may be the Bear is their mother.

 

“There is none like to me!” says the Cub in the pride of his earliest kill;

But the jungle is large and the Cub he is small. Let him think and be still.

 

Maxims of Baloo

 

Or this little interchange about punishment and being hard on one’s pupils between Bagheera (the softy) and Baloo (the disciplinarian):

 

All this will show you how much Mowgli had to learn by heart, and he grew very tired of saying the same thing over a hundred times. But, as Baloo said to Bagheera, one day when Mowgli had been cuffed and run off in a temper, “A man’s cub is a man’s cub, and he must learn all the Law of the Jungle.”

 

“But think how small he is,” said the Black Panther, who would have spoiled Mowgli if he had had his own way. “How can his little head carry all thy long talk?”

“Is there anything in the jungle too little to be killed? No. That is why I teach him these things, and that is why I hit him, very softly, when he forgets.”

“Softly! What dost thou know of softness, old Iron-feet?” Bagheera grunted. “His face is all bruised today by thy — softness. Ugh.”

 

“Better he should be bruised from head to foot by me who love him than that he should come to harm through ignorance,” Baloo answered very earnestly. “I am now teaching him the Master Words of the Jungle that shall protect him with the birds and the Snake People, and all that hunt on four feet, except his own pack. He can now claim protection, if he will only remember the words, from all in the jungle. Is not that worth a little beating?”

 

 

And the humor and all-too-recognizable way the rest of the animals despise the monkeys who run in a pack called the bandar-log:

 

 

“Listen, man-cub,” said the Bear, and his voice rumbled like thunder on a hot night. “I have taught thee all the Law of the Jungle for all the peoples of the jungle — except the Monkey-Folk who live in the trees. They have no law. They are outcasts. They have no speech of their own, but use the stolen words which they overhear when they listen, and peep, and wait up above in the branches. Their way is not our way. They are without leaders. They have no remembrance. They boast and chatter and pretend that they are a great people about to do great affairs in the jungle, but the falling of a nut turns their minds to laughter and all is forgotten. We of the jungle have no dealings with them. We do not drink where the monkeys drink; we do not go where the monkeys go; we do not hunt where they hunt; we do not die where they die. Hast thou ever heard me speak of the Bandar-log till today?”

 

“No,” said Mowgli in a whisper, for the forest was very still now Baloo had finished.

 

“The Jungle-People put them out of their mouths and out of their minds. They are very many, evil, dirty, shameless, and they desire, if they have any fixed desire, to be noticed by the Jungle People. But we do not notice them even when they throw nuts and filth on our heads.”

He had hardly spoken when a shower of nuts and twigs spattered down through the branches; and they could hear coughings and howlings and angry jumpings high up in the air among the thin branches.
]]> I get letters http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008353 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008353 Wed, 30 Jun 2010 08:21:26 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I get letters. All pastors do.

 

I got one recently that started like this…

 

“Can I bend your ear about some things that have been happening at RBC lately…”

 

How does that strike you?

If you are a pessimist - you think the letter will be an ear bending list of grievances and complaints.

You might be justified in thinking that way. Because, like all pastors, I get my share of those letters.

 

But not this one.

 

This letter was a series of joyful paragraphs each one beginning with: “I wanted to tell you about…” Each paragraph then expounded a person or family who has been a blessing to the writer. Each one a person who has been an undeniable evidence of gospel grace and powerful example of Spirit filled service.

 

Could you write such a letter about your church? 

 

Maybe you should.
]]> Is Calvinism cold? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008347 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008347 Mon, 28 Jun 2010 12:44:25 PST Spencer DeBlog  

 

Do you think Calvin is cold?
Do you figure that the doctrines of election and God’s sovereignty encourage human apathy and discourage vibrant compassion?
Do you suspect that Calvinistic theology leads to the doctrine of the frozen chosen?
 
I don’t. 
Neither did John Calvin.
 
 
We ought to embrace the whole human race without exception in a single feeling of love; here there is no distinction between barbarian and Greek, worthy and unworthy, friend and enemy, since all should be contemplated in God, not in themselves. When we turn aside from such contemplation, it is no wonder we become entangled in many errors.
Therefore, if we rightly direct our love, we must first turn our eyes not to man, the sight of whom would more often engender hate than love, but to God, who bids us extend to all men the love we bear to Him, that this may be an unchanging principle: Whatever the character of the man, we must yet love him because we love God.”
–John Calvin, Institutes
]]> From my Twitter http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008329 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008329 Thu, 24 Jun 2010 08:15:53 PST Spencer DeBlog  


From my Twitter:

 

 

Sunday evening Shepherding Group study is titled Complaining and Contentment. We are for latter and against the former.

 

Marquis Laughlin will be at RBC July 18, 6pm. He is doing the book of Revelation. You don’t want to miss this.

 

Prepping eight people for baptism July 11. Great group. Totally different in their stories. Same Savior

 

Today I caught myself telling someone to be patient - in a very impatient and unkind way. #myproblemisme

 

Praying for the high school and college age leaders who will be taking our 3-5 graders to Camp Ripley next week.

We should not know ourselves if we could see ourselves as we shall be when the Lord's purpose is accomplished in us. CHS


 

]]> Six Day Creation http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008327 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008327 Wed, 23 Jun 2010 13:52:10 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I wonder why it seems that these things come in waves.

 

Have you ever been asked a question that you did not expect to be asked?

And then the next day somebody else asks the same question, and then the next day someone else?

Like you haven’t talked about this issue in months and then one week you find yourself talking about it every day?

 

That happened to me recently with six day creation.

 

I am a long way from an expert on science. But I am happy to answer the question as someone who works hard at understanding and interpreting the Bible.

 

Genesis one says that God created the world in six days. Days are days. 

 

Anyway, the post up today at this other blog came at just the right time for me. It is a really, really good explanation of the issues involved and a straightforward claim that since the Bible says six days that is what believers should believe.

 

It written by John MacArthur. It is a foreword to a book honoring John Whitcomb.  Here is a small part:

 

 

The apostle Paul closed his first epistle to Timothy by urging the young pastor to guard the deposit of truth that had been entrusted to him, "avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge" (1 Timothy 6:20-21). In the King James Version, the text famously speaks of "science falsely so called."

 

Trying desperately to keep the biblical concept of eternity at bay, evolutionists have thus devised an alternative kind of infinitude. Every time a challenge to current evolutionary theory arises, geologists and astronomers dutifully tack billions and billions of eons onto their theories about the earth's age, adding however many ancient epochs are deemed necessary for some new impossibility to be explained.



In the introduction to my 2001 book, The Battle for the Beginning, I suggested naturalism had become the dominant religion of contemporary secular society. "Religion is exactly the right word to describe naturalism," I wrote. "The entire philosophy is built on a faith-based premise. Its basic presupposition—a rejection of everything supernatural—requires a giant leap of faith. And nearly all its supporting theories must be taken by faith as well."

 

Christians should not be intimidated by dogmatic naturalism. We do not need to invent a new interpretation of Genesis every time some geologist or astronomer declares that the universe must be older than he previously thought. Nor should we imagine that legitimate science poses any threat to the truth of Scripture. Above all, we must not seek ways to circumvent the clear meaning of God's Word, compromise our trust in the Creator, or continually yield ground to every new theory of falsely-so-called science. That is precisely what Paul was warning Timothy about.

 

Read the whole thing:

 


 
]]> A favorite on a favorite http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008322 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008322 Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:53:41 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

I had the great joy recently of re-reading Martyn Lloyd Jones sermon on one of my favorite verses, Romans 6:17. It is his sermon “Mind, Heart, Will” in the book Spiritual Depression.

 

But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

 

Lloyd-Jones takes that verse and gives an exposition in two main points.

 


  1. The gospel message is great and whole, taking in the whole of life.

  2. The gospel message must be received by the whole person, mind, heart and will.


These twin truths are definitive for me. They get right at the heart of what I believe about ministry. Here are a few quotes:

 

Lop-sided Christians are generally produced by preachers whose doctrine lacks balance, or rotundity, or wholeness.

 

The gospel is not something partial or piecemeal: it takes in the whole of life, the whole of history, the whole world. It tells us about creation and the final judgment and everything in between. It is a complete, whole view of life, and many are unhappy in the Christian life because they have never realized that this way of life caters for the whole of man’s life and covers every eventuality in his experience.

 

The gospel is such that the whole man must be involved in it and by it.

 


We must always put these things in right order, and it is the Truth first. It is doctrine first, it is the standard of teaching first. We are not concerned simply to attract people emotionally or in the realm of the will, we are concerned to preach the Word. It is Truth first. 

 


So Paul puts his mighty argument and demonstration and from this I draw my final conclusion, that . . . we must always realize, when we talk to others, that the heart is never to be approached directly. I go further, the will is never to be approached directly either. This is a most important principle to bear in mind both in personal dealings and in preaching. The heart is always to be influenced through the understanding--the mind, then the heart, then the will.

 


 

]]> Picnic 2010 Top Ten http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008317 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008317 Mon, 21 Jun 2010 12:25:02 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Picnic Top Ten


 

 


 

The cakes were amazing.  Did you see the triangle? The model of Mt. Sinai?
 

Wayne in the dunk tank.
 

Bob Boeck in the pie booth.


 

Mrs. Salazar brought her green salsa fresca. She sent the rest (almost a jar full) home with me.


 

Hearing that my dad helped wash dishes.


 

Michelle was supposed to be in the pie booth. Sam took her place. So Michelle gets in line and throws three at Sam. Where is the gratitude?


 

I was so happy that Betty Glittenberg was able to make it.


 

Jim Bergman asked me who we should put in the pie booth since there was a vacancy. I responded quickly and confidently: “Kim Bergman.” The look on Jim’s face was priceless.


 

I stole a half-hour in the shade and borrowed somebody’s fold-out chair with the expandable foot rest and extra-cushy head pillow.


 

Anne B. reminiscing about her first RBC picnic. It was in 1936.


 

 


 

 
]]> listen to this livestream http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008305 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008305 Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:41:23 PST Spencer DeBlog Ligonier Ministries National Conference is livestreaming today and all this weekend.  Tune in to hear MacArthur, Sproul, Begg and others.


http://www.christianity.com/ligonier/


 

]]> woops http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008303 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008303 Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:39:09 PST Spencer DeBlog  


If you are here this Sunday, notice the verse on the top of the order of service in the bulletin. It is Luke 15:20. 

 

And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Luke 15:20

 

What a great verse. 

What a beautiful picture. 

It was easy to choose because it ties in with the special song and the sermon.

 

When I placed my sermon notes onto the bulletin just now, I typed in that verse in.

This is what I typed:

 

And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and killed him.

Luke 15:20

 

Thankfully, Linda caught my error before printing the bulletins.
]]> nobody is open-minded http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008293 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008293 Wed, 16 Jun 2010 07:52:09 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Nobody pursues purely “objective” learning. Everybody pursues “committed” and “socially located” learning. In fact, everybody’s learning is “faithbased,” and this is so no matter what his scholarly or professional field. The question is never whether a person has faith in something or someone, but in what or whom.

Plantinga

 

 

Do you agree with Christian philosopher Plantinga here? 

I do. 

Everybody has a heart that pushes, pulls and prods them toward certain conclusions and away from other ones.  No one looks at the evidence with a genuinely open mind. 

 

This is why the Spirit of God always targets the heart.

 
]]> Not the Way it is Supposed to Be http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008285 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008285 Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:23:38 PST Spencer DeBlog  


This is taken from Plantinga's very thought provoking work titled Not the Way it is Supposed to Be

 

Shalom and sin are opposites

 

The webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in justice, fulfillment, and delight is what the Hebrew prophets call shalom. In English we call it peace, but it means far more than just peace of mind or ceasefire between enemies. In the Bible shalom means universal flourishing, wholeness, and delight—a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts fruitfully employed, a state of affairs that inspires joyful wonder as the creator and savior opens doors and speaks welcome to the creatures in whom he delights. Shalom, in other words, is the way things are supposed to be.

 

Sin is shalom’s opposite.  All sin has first and finally a Godward force. We could therefore draft a definition like this: a sin is any act—any thought, desire, emotion, word, or deed—or its particular absence, that displeases God and deserves blame.

 

Human life is not the way it’s supposed to be. And so the world’s great thinkers often diagnose the human predicament and prescribe various remedies for it. They diagnose ignorance and prescribe education. They diagnose oppression and prescribe justice. They diagnose the conformism of “bad faith” and prescribe the freedom of authentic choice. A few look at the world, fall into a depression, and put their prescription pad away. 

 

Christians think that the usual diagnoses and prescriptions catch part of the truth but that they do not get to the bottom of it. The human problem isn’t just ignorance; it’s also stubborn pride. It’s not just oppression; it’s also corruption.

 

The real human predicament, as Scripture reveals, is that inexplicably, irrationally, we all keep living our lives against what’s good for us. In what can only be called the mystery of iniquity, human beings from nearly the beginning have so often chosen to live against God, against each other, and against God’s world.
]]> Top Ten Sunday http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008273 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008273 Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:29:13 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Top Ten from Sunday 6/13


 

 


 


  1. Kicking Kelly’s flute and almost knocking it over when I roamed away from the pulpit. This only happened in first service because she saw me do it and took it off the platform with her during second service. 
     


 

 


 


  1. Some of our folks are filling in as Crosswalk teachers for the summer in order to give our regular teachers a bit of a break. Faythe is doing so and yesterday was her first Sunday to bring the lesson. On the way out she showed me her ear and toe (which were liberally dabbed with red paint). The lesson was from Leviticus 14.
     


 

 


 


  1. Seeing Joshy step up and nail Psalm 92, from memory, in front of the entire congregation.
     


 

 


 


  1. Somebody was talking to me after church. He was saying nice, kind and complimentary things about RBC and our ministry. He ended by saying, “I hope you don’t think I am just blowing sunshine. I really mean this.” That idea of blowing sunshine just struck me as funny.
     


 

 


 


  1. Hugging Doug and Amy Nunziato. Asking Doug for advice about what I should preach to the missionaries at the conference I am speaking at in Turkey.
     


 

 


 


  1. Discussing observations and applications from Hebrews 12:3-13 in our parenting class. God disciplines us so that our weak and disordered limbs will be set right. He wants us to walk and run with joy. This restorative, formative purpose should govern and guide our discipline as parents.
     


 

 


 


  1. I was approached by a 16 year old (not Carly) who got a summer job. This student asked if I could do a favor. “I was late and missed the offering. Could you make sure this gets into the plate somehow?” The student handed me a little bundle of money. What a great habit of faithful generosity this 16 year old is starting.
     


 

 


 


  1. The ironic, Jewish humor in Numbers 11:15.
     


 

 


 


  1. Linda Righi is amazing. Really. She played the organ for verse 1, then dropped out for verses 2 and 3 in order to bring the kids up on the platform, position and prepare them, then she was back at the organ to make the 4th and final verse finish strong. As soon as the hymn concluded she was back at the front conducting the kid’s choir. Amazing.
     


 

 


 


  1. Sharing about the Miller family during the sermon. If you think about it… isn’t the church supposed to be filled with visible proof of the message the preacher is preaching? Steve and Liz and their family have been that proof, a living display of the gospel.  I am privileged to have them in my life and ministry.
     


 

 
]]> J. C. Ryle http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008263 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008263 Thu, 10 Jun 2010 14:44:11 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Here is a pattern that all ministers ought to follow. Publicly and privately, from the pulpit and in private visits, they ought to rebuke all open sin, and deliver a faithful warning to all who are living in it. It may give offense. It may entail immense unpopularity. With all this they have nothing to do. Duties are theirs. Results are God’s. 

J.C. Ryle

 

JC Ryle lived in England from May 10, 1816 to June 10, 1900. Now he lives in Heaven. 

 

He got there exactly 112 years ago today.

 

We tried to see his grave when we were in England but did not make it to Liverpool. Maybe next time.

 

J.C. Ryle has long been one of my favorites. 

 

His book on "Holiness" is an all-time classic.

 

I used to give his book “Walking with God” to the graduating seniors when I was a youth pastor.

 

His “Thoughts on the Gospels” are full of rich meditations on every verse of the gospels.

 

 
]]> A glory war http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008254 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008254 Tue, 08 Jun 2010 08:39:30 PST Spencer DeBlog  


In Pastor’s meeting today we discussed this article. It nearly destroyed us.  Deeply convicting. Intensely personal. Pray that we would continue to be humble and transparent. Pray that we would resist pride and sinful blindness.

 

Paul Tripp "The Pastor: Who Do We Think He Is Anyway?"

 

Let me ask you a question. What man in this room would be comfortable with me playing a public recording of everything you said in your home the last two months? I’m here because I’m a pastor and I am concerned for us. Your ministry is never shaped by your knowledge or skill. It’s always shaped by your heart.

 

Brothers, let’s say it: Ministry is war. That war is not fought in programs or finances. It is fought on the turf of your heart. Ministry is war and we need to be equipped and skilled soldiers so that we are not the casualties of that war.

 

We all know for sure that the ultimate goal of any form of ministry is the glory of God. God’s zeal is that there would be an ever-growing company of people that surrender every desire and every action to his glory. That’s the purpose of ministry. But ministry is a glory war. In ministry, there are subtle glories that compete with the glory of God. It’s very easy somewhere in ministry to have a glory shift take place somewhere in your heart and not even know it. It’s very easy to shift from a pursuit of the glory of God and his kingdom to begin to serve the glory of self and the glory of the kingdom of self.

 

How do you serve the kingdom of God in ministry? By doing ministry. How do you serve the kingdom of self in ministry? By doing ministry. The kingdom of self is a costume kingdom that masquerades itself as the kingdom of God.

 

Jesus came so that those who live would no longer live for themselves. The DNA of sin is selfishness. What sin does is turn me in on myself. Sin makes me all too focused on my wants, my comfort, my pleasure, my success. As long as sin still lives in me, the selfishness that is the DNA of sin is still within me. Pastors, admit it. That is still a struggle for you.

 

The entire transcript is available at Desiring God.

 

]]> spiritual gifts http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008250 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008250 Mon, 07 Jun 2010 07:56:00 PST Spencer DeBlog  


1 Peter 4:10-11 As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

 

1)  What we have – the equipment each one has received a special gift   

 

The “each” here emphasizes that we do each, individually, have at least one spiritual gift. Each believer has a spiritual gift.

 

No one in the church can say “I am good for nothing. There is nothing I can do to help in the church.”

 

If you say that about yourself or another person in the church you are calling God’s Word untrue.

 

Every believer has a gift and every believer ought to find a way to use that gift.

 

So if we each have one – what do we do with them?

 

2)  What we do – the job employ it in serving one another                       

 

This is their immediate purpose, what they are to be used for, the job they are to do. God gave you the equipment for the task of serving others in the church.

 

1 Corinthians 12:7 says they are to be used for the common good.

 

A good definition of spiritual gift --   A personal ability for a corporate purpose.

 

That spiritual gift that you have is not really about you – it is to be used in serving others.

 

They are for the common good of the body of Christ as an expression of love and never for personal gain or selfish agendas.

 

Your gift is all about God loving others through you.  This is a great way to look at spiritual gifts and ministry:

 

God, how can you love others through me best?

 

Another good definition of spiritual gift – How God meets the needs of other believers through you.

 
]]> Husbands, love your wives http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008248 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008248 Sat, 05 Jun 2010 07:19:41 PST Spencer DeBlog I admit it.


I cry when I think  about how much John Wooden loved his wife.


 


From the CT article:


Lest you think Wooden was merely a walking Hallmark card of sports-related clichés, think again. A devoted Christian, the coach was far more interested in developing men of integrity than great players.


Just ask Bill Walton, the All-American who led the Bruins to a couple of championships. Walton once showed up with a beard, defying Wooden's rule against facial hair. "It's my right," Walton insisted. Wooden responded, "That's good, Bill. I admire people who have strong beliefs and stick by them. I really do. We're going to miss you."


Walton shaved it off, right on the spot.


Wooden's players developed integrity because their coach epitomized it.


Here's another glimpse into the man's character: On the 21st of every month, he writes a love letter to Nell, his wife of 53 years, and places it on her pillow. There are now 252 letters on Nell's pillow, who died on March 21, 1985. "I'm not afraid to die," says Wooden. "Death is my only chance to be with her again."


From an SI article:


He pointed out a wedding anniversary gift from their children, a black-and-white shot of Johnny, then 16, beaming at the camera, with 15-year-old Nell, "the only girl I ever went with," looking up at him in adoration. Every month on the 21st, the day of Nell's death, he would write her a letter and add it to a stack secured by a yellow ribbon. But in time he had struck precisely the kind of balance he once preached, honoring Nell and their life together, yet also speaking, teaching, weighing in on the controversies afflicting the game and turning up for the occasional Final Four. Nell had died almost precisely when his first great-granddaughter, Cori Nicholson, had been conceived, and even in his grief Wooden couldn't miss the pertinence of another of his favorite sayings: "God never closes one door without opening another."


One day during Wooden's blue period, when she was three, Cori had tugged at her great-grandfather and pointed at the sky. "See that airplane, Papa? I'm going to take that airplane and fly all the way to heaven and get Mama and bring her back, so Papa won't be lonely anymore."


 

]]> What if we prayed http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008237 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008237 Thu, 03 Jun 2010 06:48:20 PST Spencer DeBlog

Unexamined sin would be brought out into the light and confessed. With confession comes the renewed joy of salvation.

Unrepentant habits and patterns will be put on notice and stopped. Then new habits can start and grow strong.

Self-centered striving could be replaced with servant hearted activity.
Proud competition into humble cooperation.
Selfish stress into Godly contentment.
Prayerless independence into prayerful trust.

Will you pray with me?
]]> my prayer http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008235 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008235 Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:47:37 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I jotted this prayer down in my journal recently.  I need God to answer it so that I can deal with my biggest problem… (me) …

 

 

I desire my own way way too often. Lord, make me want what You want. Make Your will what I long for.

 

I heed my own wisdom all too frequently. Lord, show me my foolishness and constantly convince me of Your wisdom.

 

I am too quick to choose my personal comfort. Lord, lead me to love others as You have loved me.

 

I own my own glory far too aggressively. Lord, make Your glory my sole passion.
]]> This cracks me up. Wrong Wheaton. http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008225 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008225 Tue, 01 Jun 2010 12:45:58 PST Spencer DeBlog I just put this up on Twitter.  It made me laugh out loud.


This cracks me up! Ann Curry Flubs Wheaton College Commencement - TIME NewsFeed http://bit.ly/aNKxss


Here is the linked story:




Peppering in the names of distinguished alumni is an easy way to boost commencement speech. But TODAY show news anchor Ann Curry learned the hard way that the names have to be from the right schools.


Curry delivered Saturday’s speech to graduates at Wheaton College in Massachusetts, referencing the esteemed careers of a trio of alumni — reverend Billy Graham, film director Wes Craven and politician Dennis Hastert.


As the AP reports, the only problem was that each of those distinguished graduates went to another Wheaton College — in Illinois.


Graham, Hastert and Craven would have had great difficulty earning the East Coast education. Up until 1988, Wheaton (Mass.) was an all-girls institution.


Curry quickly copped to her mistake, releasing a statement on the university website: “I am mortified by my mistake, and can only hope the purity of my motive, to find a way to connect with the graduates and to encourage them to a life of service, will allow you to forgive me.”



 





 


]]> There is no fickleness in him http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008222 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008222 Tue, 01 Jun 2010 07:23:39 PST Spencer DeBlog  


The Lord Jesus is “a friend who never changes.” There is no fickleness about Him: those whom He loves, He loves to the end. Husbands have been known to forsake their wives; parents have been known to cast off their children; human vows and promises of faithfulness have often been forgotten. Thousands have been neglected in their poverty and old age, who were honored by all when they were rich and young. But Christ never changed his feelings towards one of His friends. He is “the same yesterday and today and forever.” (Hebrews 13:8) J.C. Ryle
]]> memorial day http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008220 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008220 Mon, 31 May 2010 08:51:34 PST Spencer DeBlog  

We are thankful to all of those who faithfully served in the United States military.

 

Many of our RBC families have a loved one who has served. Thank you.

 

Many from our families are currently serving honorably. We are praying for you.

 

And on this Memorial Day we remember that some from our church family, and many from our nation's families, have died in the armed services.

 

We remember.

 

We grieve but not as those who have no hope.

 

 

 

]]> I will struggle against it and God will not hold it against me http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008216 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008216 Thu, 27 May 2010 13:17:22 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Heidelberg Confession #58

 

What do you believe concerning the forgiveness of sins?  I believe that God, because of Christ's atonement, will never hold against me any of my sins nor my sinful nature which I need to struggle against my entire life.  Rather in His Grace God grants me the righteousness of Christ to free me forever from judgment.

 

Kevin DeYoung –

 

If the Lord gives me another 30 years I will wake up a sixty-something year old and still be frustrated with myself.  I can count on it.  I will not be completely sanctified.  I will still be struggling with my self-centeredness, impatience, and indifference to so much of God's glory.  And because of Christ's blood, God will still not hold any of these sins against me.

This is not at excuse for laziness in the war against sin.  But it is a call for perpetual joy and gratitude at the forgiveness that is mine through no work of my own.
]]> this is my life http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008208 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008208 Wed, 26 May 2010 06:52:53 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

I hope I do not get in trouble for this.

 

But I am going to post a private email exchange of mine up on this blog.

It is with Paul, who is church treasurer and John, who is executive pastor (church administrator).  Neither of them is paid staff.  They both put in a lot of time around here.

 

I share this email exchange for two reasons:

 

1 – It is humorous.

 

2 – It represents God’s goodness and grace in my life. 

These are the people that He has chosen to surround me with. 

I have no idea why God has been so kind to me.

He has surrounded me with men and women who love Him and love me.

Honestly, I tear up when I think about it for too long…

 

Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 7:30 AM

Subject: 2010-2011 budget

 

Spencer,



Would you be willing to write an introduction/cover page to the 2010-2011 budget that includes a brief Bible study, like you have in the past?  I was going to do it, but on the way out of the building last night, my dad said, "Have Spencer do it.  He can finish that in no time."



Let me know if you have other commitments this week and can't do it.  If you can, I'd like to give the final budget to Linda by Thursday morning, so she has 2 days to make copies.



Thanks,

Paul





Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 8:48 AM

Subject: RE: 2010-2011 budget

 

Paul,

 

I will have it done by Wed PM. 

Be prepared. 

It will include graphs and charts with differently measured variants on both sides of the Y axis. 

Man! That first chart of yours at board meeting last night was jaw dropping!

Spencer

 



 

Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 9:28 AM

Subject: RE: 2010-2011 budget

 

Spencer,

 

Thanks for doing the intro/devotional ... and I'm glad you liked the charts.  Next time you need a graph to use as an illustration for one of your sermons, you know who to call.  (Of course, next time would be the first time, so I won't hold my breath!)



Have a great day!

Paul

 

 

Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 8:58 AM

Subject: FW: 2010-2011 budget

 

Dear John,

 

Please note the quotation which your son attributed to you in his note to me.

"Have Spencer do it.  He can finish that in no time."

 

Be aware that I say the exact same thing all the time (to elders, deacons, staff, church members, missionaries, non-member regular attenders) with the simple substitution of the name John Anderson in place of mine.

 

Spencer



 

Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 9:33 AM

Subject: FW: 2010-2011 budget

 

Spencer,

 

As you well know, one of the joys in serving is knowing each other’s gifts and those things that can be easily accomplished in our respective areas. Thanks for the compliment and whatever you can pass my way to make you most usable and effective by the Lord in your area of ministry is my service to the Lord, you and RBC.

 

John
]]> parenting and discipline http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008207 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008207 Tue, 25 May 2010 10:09:24 PST Spencer DeBlog Think about this one.  God does not "punish" His children.  He corrects them. 


What does that show us about God's love?


How should that help us as mothers and fathers?


This is from Bruce Ray's excellent book Withhold not Correction:


 


God’s discipline is corrective and not merely punitive in nature. Look at verse 12 and 13 of Hebrews 12. “Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.” God administers discipline not to inflict punishment upon His children, but in order to keep limbs that are lame from being put out of joint and to see them healed. Now to be sure, God’s righteousness demands that He punish sin. This He will do on that great dark day of judgment when His anger will grow hot, His mercy will be covered, and He will cast both body and soul into hell. That is punishment. But with respect to His children, God’s purpose is always corrective. It is not retribution or vengeance. He is not afflicting them in order to punish them for the sins which they have committed. He is afflicting them with a view toward correction, toward bringing their feet back to center, toward bringing them to walk that straight and narrow path again.
]]> some highlights http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008201 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008201 Mon, 24 May 2010 07:55:08 PST Spencer DeBlog Some highlights from the weekend...


Praying for our High School ministry while they were up at camp Ripley. Hearing from them, upon their return, about how God challenged them.

 

Out shopping with Amy on Saturday

I actually accompanied her (willingly) to the big thrift store down in Gurnee. She found lots and lots and lots of stuff. I found The Children of Hurin (new hardcover) for $1.21.

 

Marriage Mentoring Banquet Saturday night

I am very thankful for the Ladd family. They served us with excellence. Marriage mentoring is such a simple concept. And yet the fruit from this ministry never ceases to amaze me.

 

Scripture reading Sunday morning

Feeling tremors go through the congregation when they realized we were going to read the whole chapter in Numbers – out loud and standing up.

 

Communion on Sunday morning

I love taking communion with this church family. Sunday we emphasized together our conviction that God keeps His promises. And we remember together that He has promised to forgive us, cleanse us, restore us, and receive us where He is.

 

Parenting class Sunday evening 

We had a great discussion about the fact that a strong will is a great blessing. We all want our children to grow up with inner strength and clarity of unshakeable conviction that resists the world, the flesh and the devil. Yet our task as parents is to be used of God to break them of selfish will and prideful resistance. Our consistent discipline is meant to lead them to humbly submit their will to God’s.
]]> Good meditation on Numbers http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008198 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008198 Fri, 21 May 2010 08:22:30 PST Spencer DeBlog I liked this meditation on Numbers 15 over at desiringgod.


http://www.desiringgod.org/Blog/2425_no_more_whoring/


 

]]> Congratulations to Shepherds http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008197 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008197 Thu, 20 May 2010 08:02:36 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Congratulations to Shepherds Ministries for being a Midwest finalist in the Hope Award for Effective Compassion at World Magazine.


 

 


 

RBC is delighted to have many of the staff and residents from Shepherds in our church family.


 

 


 


 

 


 

(I am not sure if the entire article is available or just an abstract. However, if you scroll down you can watch a video about the ministry.)
]]> constant guilt that i am not doing enough http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008195 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008195 Wed, 19 May 2010 10:24:05 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Do you ever read a challenging book (like Crazy Love) or hear some missionaries’ story and feel totally guilty that you aren’t doing enough?

 

It is good to be challenged. 

But I don’t believe God wants us constantly comparing. 

And doesn’t the gospel free us from guilt? 

So why do so many of us feel so guilty all the time?  And what are we supposed to do about it?

 

 

Pastor David Platt gives a great response to this topic in this interview at Justin Taylor’s blog.

 

How would you counsel folks who feel a constant low-grade sense of guilt that they are always failing the Lord and never doing enough?

 

This is a great question, and it’s one of my greatest concerns even in writing this particular book. The last thing I want to do is leave readers overwhelmed by guilt, constantly wondering, “When I am going to be radical enough? What do I need to do, how do I need to give, or where do I need to go in order to do enough for God?” These are extremely unhealthy questions, for the reality with which the Gospel confronts us is that we’ll never be able to do enough. No matter what we do, even if we sell all of our possessions, give to the poor, and move to the most dangerous country in the world, we cannot do enough to be accepted before God or approved by God.

 

The beauty of the Gospel is that Christ is alone is able to do enough. He alone is able to keep the law and commands of God, and He has done it. Indeed, He has been faithful enough, generous enough, compassionate enough, etc. As a result, the starting point of the radical life is death to self, death to every attempt to do enough before God, and trust in Christ, the One who has lived the radical life on our behalf.

 

The beauty now is that when we trust in Christ to be our righteousness, we are free to obey from a totally different position. In Christ, we have been declared “not guilty” before God. As a result, we no longer live from a position of guilt, but from a position of righteousness. And not only have we been declared righteous in Christ (as if this were not enough!), but He has given us His Spirit, and He lives in us to enable us at every single moment to live according to the commands which He has given us. As Christians, we now find ourselves free from guilt and driven by grace.

 

In addition to all this, guilt is ultimately an unbearable burden and an unsustainable motivator. We may change our ways for a short time based on guilt, but real, true, radical life change will not happen until we trust in the Gospel.

 

So my encouragement to anyone who struggles with a low-grade sense of guilt, wondering if they are ever doing enough, would be to realize that they can never do enough . . . and then to rejoice in the reality that Christ has done enough for them. Then, whenever they are confronted with sin or shortcomings, I would encourage them to trust in Christ, to rest in His righteousness, and to ask Him to produce the fruit of a radical Gospel in their lives. This alone will sustain radical, life-changing, world-impacting obedience for the glory of God in all nations.

David Platt
]]> my little bark sails on a restless sea http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008192 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008192 Tue, 18 May 2010 11:15:41 PST Spencer DeBlog At staff meeting today I will be sharing this during our prayer time.


It is from Valley of Vision


 


O Lord of the Oceans,


My little bark sails on a restless sea,


Grant that Jesus may sit at the helm and steer me safely;


Suffer no adverse currents to divert my heavenward course;


Let not my faith be wrecked amid storms and shoals;


Bring me to harbour with flying pennants,


hull unbreached, cargo unspoiled.


 


 


I ask great things,


expect great things,


shall receive great things.


 


I venture on thee wholly, fully,


my wind, sunshine, anchor, defence.


 


The voyage is long, the waves high, the storms pitiless,


but my helm is held steady,


thy Word secures safe passage,


thy grace wafts me onward,


my haven is guaranteed.


 


 


This day will bring me nearer home,


Grant me holy consistency in every transaction,


my peace flowing as a running tide,


my righteousness as every chasing wave.


 


Help me to live circumspectly,


with skill to convert every care into prayer.


 


 


Halo my path with gentleness and love,


smooth every asperity of temper;


let me not forget how easy it is to occasion grief;


may I strive to bind up every wound,


and pour oil on all troubled waters.


 


May the world this day be happier and better because I live.


 


Let my mast before me be the savior’s cross,


and every oncoming wave the fountain in his side.


 


Help me, protect me in the moving sea


until I reach the shore of unceasing praise.

]]> One simple question to share the gospel http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008190 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008190 Mon, 17 May 2010 09:51:27 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Ask People How You Can Pray for Them

Donald S. Whitney

 

Over and over I've seen one simple question open people's hearts to hear the gospel. Until I asked this question, they showed no interest in spiritual matters. But then after six words—only seventeen letters in English—I've seen people suddenly begin to weep and their resistance fall. The question is, "How can I pray for you?"

 

This may not seem like such a powerful question to you. Perhaps that's because you hear it, or a question like it, quite often. Your Bible study group or your church prayer meeting asks for prayer requests every week. You may even see requests for prayer solicited each Sunday morning in the worship bulletin.

 

But realize that most people in the world never hear such a question. And while many churchgoers know that a minister is willing to pray for them, in some traditions they're expected to make a special donation to the church for such services. So when you ask, "How can I pray for you?" and it's obvious that you're asking out of love alone, it can touch a person more deeply than you imagine.

 

This question is similar to one that Jesus Himself sometimes asked: "What do you want me to do for you?" (Matthew 20:32). For what we are really asking is, "What do you want me to ask Jesus to do for you?" And by means of this question, we can show the love of Christ to people and open hearts previously closed to the gospel.

 

I had tried to talk about the things of God many times to a business-hardened, retired executive who lived next door. He was a pro at hiding his feelings and keeping conversations at a superficial level. But the day we stood between our homes and I asked, "How can I pray for you?" his eyes filled with tears as his façade of self-sufficiency melted. For the first time in seven years he let me speak with him about Jesus.

 

It's a short, easily remembered question. You can use it with longtime friends or with people you've just met. It doesn't seem too personal or pushy for those who'd rather give you a shallow answer just now, and yet it often leads to a full hearing of the gospel. You can ask it of people nearly every time you speak with them and it doesn't get old. Just simply and sincerely ask, "How can I pray for you?" You'll be surprised at the results.

 

_______________________






From Donald S. Whitney, Simplify Your Spiritual Life (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 2003).

Copyright © 2003, Donald S. Whitney. All rights reserved.
]]> studying a rose http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008177 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008177 Wed, 12 May 2010 09:04:05 PST Spencer DeBlog  


This is from Expositor’s Bible Commentary Introduction to the book of Numbers:

 

The Book of Numbers is not only a part of Scripture and, hence, inspired, inerrant, and relevant for doctrine, guidance, and instruction in righteous living. It is also an essential part of the Torah, the Pentateuch of Moses. While many acknowledge the foundational nature of the Torah to the development of Scripture, there is rarely a serious consideration of its contributions as authoritative and informing Scripture in the practical outworking of evangelical theology.

 

Frequently a few passages that are regarded as messianic are selected for study. But the rest of the text seems to be regarded as just "filler." Genesis, understandably, is read more than the rest of the books of the Torah; Numbers, however, is read very little for basic theology.

 

Yet the Bible only holds together in so far as it is seen as an organic development from the beginning forward. The books of the Torah are like the bud of a rose; all the flower is present, but not all its inner beauty is expressed. Yet everything the flower will become is already present in the full-bud stage. The Prophets and the Writings are akin to the opening of the rose. They do not present so much new truth as they develop and clarify truth that has been already expressed in the books of the Torah.

 

In the teaching of Jesus we find the rose of Scripture, as it were, in the full-bloom stage. His words reveal more fully than ever what God has meant from the beginning in his revelation. In a sense we may say that the teaching of Jesus is the full blossom of Torah truth.

 

The Epistles in the NT are akin to the rose in the full-blown stage. In this stage of the flower, the bloom is still intact, but the petals are opened to their fullest extent. In this stage much attention is given to the fine detail of a given petal, but there is a danger in losing a sense of the form and contours of the flower.
]]> Able to teach http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008173 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008173 Tue, 11 May 2010 05:55:43 PST Spencer DeBlog Our elder Bible study from last month:


Duties of an Elder: Feeding the Flock

 

Biblical Terms

 

The word teach and its cognate nouns teaching and teacher are used in the NT mainly to denote the careful transmission of the tradition concerning Jesus Christ and the authoritative proclamation of God’s will to believers in light of that tradition. (See especially 1 Tim. 4:11, 2 Tim. 2:2; Acts 2:42; Rom. 12:7). (D. Moo)

 

The only means for true authority in preaching and daily Christian living is to utilize hermeneutics to wed our application as closely as possible to our interpretation and to make certain that our interpretation coheres with the thrust of the text. (G. Osborne)

 

Our subject and substance is the Word (2 Tim. 4:2) spoken to others so that they receive it not as the word of men but as the Word of God (1 Thess. 2:13). This requires hard word (2 Tim. 2:15; 1 Tim. 5:17).

 

 

The Priority of Feeding in Scripture

 

Jesus in His reinstatement of Peter John 21:17

Jesus in His commission to His disciples Matt. 28:20

All elders are required to be able to do this 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:9

We are commanded to give attention to it in the church 1 Tim. 4:13

The Shepherds are rebuked, first and foremost, for failing to feed Ex. 34:2-4

Why else would the “teaching elder” be worthy of double honor? 1 Tim. 5:17

 

 

The Priority of Feeding in General

 

The health and growth of the sheep depends on their access to good food and clean water.

The church is built up in the truth as the truth is faithfully taught in the church.

The church is protected and guarded from error by becoming wise in sound doctrine.

Everything that believers do in the church and for the prosperity of the church is done as the Spirit leads them in the application of biblical teaching.

 

 

Biblical Texts

 

Matthew 28:19-20

 

1 Timothy 3:2; 4:13-16

 

2 Timothy 2:2, 15, 24-25; 3:16-4:2

 

Titus 1:9

 

1 Timothy 3:2

 

What does able to teach mean? It includes knowledge and ability: knowledge of the Bible and ability to transfer that knowledge.

 

The only other time this term is found is 2 Tim. 2:24 where its meaning is expanded in verses 25 and 26.

 

 

1 Timothy 4:13-16

 

These three things require the giving of attention.

The reading is seen in Luke 4:16-17 and Acts 13:15

 

The exhortation is the public appeal to the conscience and conduct of the hearers that follows the reading.

 

The teaching or the doctrine is the instructional content that comes from the reading and informs the exhortation.

 

 

2 Timothy 2:2

 

We must commit the teaching we have received to others who will teach it to others.

We are to do this in the presence of many witnesses.

 

“commit” carries the idea of entrusting something to another for safekeeping.

 

Ministry Maxim: I have precisely one lifetime to make certain the gospel survives and thrives in another generation – I must labor faithfully and invest wisely. J. Kitchen

 

Success in ministry is defined here along two measures. First, the accuracy of the message conveyed to another generation. Second, the ability of the next generation to pass that same message along accurately again. This is the pattern of life-to-life transference that measures the success of the church through the ages.

 

 

Titus 1:9

 

This describes the quality of spiritual stability, doctrinal dependability, anchored, not tossed to and fro.

 

The reason for this qualification is so that he may instruct and refute (two infinitives).

 

He must exhort in sound doctrine. Unsound, unhealthy, diseased doctrine is everywhere and must be refuted.

 

Reprove or convict signifies a presentation of truth/evidence so that the arguments of the opponent are beaten down and proven to be baseless.
]]> What I am up to... http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008169 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008169 Mon, 10 May 2010 10:03:04 PST Spencer DeBlog What I am up to lately...


Thrilled to preach the gospel to many visitors yesterday.

 

 

Thankful that opening Colossians 3 enabled me to do more than talk about family. What the church needs is a truly Christian understanding of family so that we are empowered to be husbands, wives, father, mothers, sons or daughters by the gospel.

 

 

Amy’s new favorite is tart mango vanilla frozen yogurt on a waffle cone. So that is what we got her for mother’s day dessert. The first time I tried it I thought it was gross but the tart taste kinda grew on me and now I like it.

 


 

This morning I am working on the shepherding group study for next Sunday night. It is on Numbers 21 and John 3. Here is a little bit from the notes:

 

The story of the bronze serpent, recorded in Numbers 21, foreshadows the salvation which God will provide through the “Son of Man.” The Israelites had been complaining against God, grumbling about the journey and their apparent lack of food and water. They did not like the manna God gave them day after day. And so God sent fiery serpents among them, and many of those who were bitten died. God provided a salvation for this disobedient people, so that they might survive divine judgment. He instructed Moses to make a bronze serpent and to set it on a pole, so that anyone who was bitten by one of the serpents could merely look up at the serpent and be healed. This is precisely what happened. All who were bitten and looked up were healed.

 

This Old Testament provision for Israel’s healing is illustrative of the salvation God is about to accomplish through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. As the serpent was lifted up, and thus became a source of salvation, so the Son of Man must be “lifted up,” so that those who look up to Him in faith can be saved from God’s wrath as well. The snake-bitten Israelites were smitten of God for their sin. They deserved to die, and apart from His provision of the serpent, they would have. Those who did not look up to the bronze serpent died. The act of merely looking up to the bronze serpent was an act of faith.

 

In verses 14 and 15, Jesus connects the serpent, which is lifted up on a pole, with His own death at Calvary, when He is lifted up on the cross. Nicodemus asks how a man can be reborn from above. Jesus first tells him by analogy; now He tells him more directly. If anyone is to be saved from the penalty of their sins, they must “look up” to Him for salvation. He, like the bronze serpent of old, will be “lifted up” on a cross, and He will later be “lifted up” in His resurrection and ascension. In so doing, He will be “lifted up” in another way—He will be exalted by God for His sacrificial obedience at Calvary. All those who “look up” to Him in faith, trusting in Him to remove the judgment for their sin, like the Israelites of old, will be saved. (From Deffinbaugh’s John commentary available at bible.org)

 

 
]]> i want to be a burden to my family http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008166 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008166 Sat, 08 May 2010 17:10:53 PST Spencer DeBlog I Want to Burden My Loved Ones

By Gilbert Meilaender


http://tinyurl.com/287gzgd ]]> franklin graham http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008163 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008163 Thu, 06 May 2010 11:01:26 PST Spencer DeBlog Great article about Franklin Graham, the Pentagon, and faithful witness to Christ. 


Check it out at Mohler's blog.


http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/05/06/who-will-be-tested-next-the-dilemma-of-franklin-graham/

]]> politics http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008161 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008161 Thu, 06 May 2010 10:05:19 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

This post from Doug Wilson was very thought provoking for me…

 

The political state in our day is swollen and overgrown, and has gotten into everything. Politics, the great secular idol of modernity, has virtually filled up every public space. This means that it is not possible to go into any public space in order to have a public witness of any kind without it resulting in some kind of political confrontation.

To this extent, to blame public Christians for being "too political" is like blaming Noah's ark for being "too wet."

 

Abortion and sodomy were sins long before they were constitutional rights. If a minister preached against them a thousand years ago, he was preaching against moral failings, and he was not being political. He was being public, but not political. When I do it, I am preaching against moral failings also, but I am also being political. What changed? It wasn't the Decalogue. It wasn't the history of the church, or the history of preaching. It wasn't the nature of the gospel. It wasn't me. Rather, it was the nature of the idol being challenged -- and this idol aspires to omnipresence. 

 

We are told, ad nauseam, to keep our morality out of politics. It would be more to the point to tell the idol-mongers to keep their politics out of morality. Public morality need not be political, in the sense we are discussing. Public morality need not be a matter that concerns the legislature. But if the legislature concerns itself with everything, then any faithful Christian expression will immediately be concerned with the political.
]]> five things I have been up to... http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008160 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008160 Wed, 05 May 2010 11:44:36 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

1)  Moses really, really knows how to tell a story. Contrary to what you may have previously thought -- the book of Numbers makes for great reading.

 

 

2)  Talked to a missionary from Guyana about training pastors there. Do I even know where that is?

 

 

3)  Played a mean game of Jenga with a certain Youth Pastor who “cheated” and called it a win. I suppose he will claim he was unaware of the rules which he flagrantly violated. But is that a valid excuse? I still say the win should not count.

 


 

4)  Did you know they make Vanilla Milkshake Pop Tarts? I found this out last night.

 

 

5)  I appreciate how the MacArthur Study Bible nails the theological themes in Numbers in one paragraph:

 

Three theological themes permeate Numbers. First, the Lord Himself communicated to Israel through Moses (1:1; 7:89; 12:6–8), so the words of Moses had divine authority. Israel’s response to Moses mirrored her obedience or disobedience to the Lord. Numbers contains three distinct divisions based on Israel’s response to the word of the Lord: obedience (chaps. 1–10), disobedience (chaps. 11–25), and renewed obedience (chaps. 26–36). The second theme is that the Lord is the God of judgment. Throughout Numbers, the “anger” of the Lord was aroused in response to Israel’s sin (11:1, 10, 33; 12:9; 14:18; 25:3, 4; 32:10, 13, 14). Third, the faithfulness of the Lord to keep His promise to give the seed of Abraham the land of Canaan is emphasized (15:2; 26:52–56; 27:12; 33:50–56; 34:1–29).

 
]]> we find the glory of marriage incomprehensible http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008158 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008158 Wed, 05 May 2010 07:42:39 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

 

Matthew 19

So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

 

John Piper comments on this passage in his book This Momentary Marriage

 

 

The magnificence of marriage in the mind of God will seem unintelligible in a modern Western culture, where the main idol is self; and its main doctrine is autonomy; and its central act of worship is being entertained; and its three main shrines are the television, the Internet, and the cinema; and its most sacred genuflec­tion is the uninhibited act of sexual intercourse. Such a culture will find the glory of marriage in the mind of Jesus virtually incomprehensible.

 

The fact that we live in a society that can defend two men or two women entering a sexual relationship and, with wild inconceivability, call it marriage shows that the collapse of our culture into debauchery and anarchy is probably not far away.

 

I mention this cultural distortion of marriage in the hopes that it might wake you up to consider a vision of marriage higher and deeper and stronger and more glorious than anything this culture—or perhaps you yourself—ever imagined. The greatness and glory of marriage is beyond our ability to think or feel without divine revelation and with­out the illumining and awakening work of the Holy Spirit.

 

The highest meaning and the most ultimate purpose of marriage is to put the covenant relationship of Christ and his church on display. That is why marriage exists. If you are married, that is why you are married. If you hope to be, that should be your dream.
]]> people of the beep http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008156 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008156 Tue, 04 May 2010 08:26:05 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

I appreciated this article by Tim Challies. 

(you can read the whole thing at his blog)

 

 

The beep is a purely human sound, one without any equivalent in nature. No animal, no plant, makes a beep.

 

You know the sound well. The beep begins and ends with the twin plosives "b" and "p" and in between offers a eee that lasts as long as we care to make it. That beep can be a dot or a dash, a mere blip or a long and sustained beeeeeeep. It can make itself known just once or it can repeat endlessly. Beeps come in many different contexts: our phones beep, email beeps, trucks beep while they back up, washers beep when a load of clothes is clean. No matter the context, the message is always the same: "pay attention to me!" Beeps always demand a response, even if that response is only to turn it off. We may need to look up from what we are doing and press a button, we may need to sprint out of the way of a moving car, we may need to throw some clothes into the dryer, but in every case a beep calls us to action; it calls us from one thing and to another.

 

The beep is undiscerning and thoughtless. It calls us out of sleep and revery, out of church and school, demands our attention as we stand vigil at the deathbed of a loved one. Every beep exacts a cost, whether that cost is simply the brief moment of distraction as our attention turns to the beep, or whether the cost is having to run for our lives. These beeps fill our lives and often they run our lives. Many of us live from beep-to-beep, concerned more about the beeps than the space between.

 

We are a distracted people. Our ability to concentrate, to give focused attention to a single subject, has faded. We think in paragraph-sized chunks, never having time to reflect, to ponder the big picture. It is difficult to remain undistracted when our technology seems to evolve toward distraction. In an essay on the related topics of distraction and procrastination, Paul Graham writes "Distraction is not a static obstacle that you avoid like you might avoid a rock in the road. Distraction seeks you out." We are distracted by things we want and the fast pace of technological change is constantly producing things we want so much more than the things we already have. People are beginning to migrate away from television, certainly the most distracting medium of the 20th century, not because they have found something more profitable with which to bide their time, but because internet-based distraction gives us more of what we want and does so faster and better.
]]> thankful at 5:29am http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008154 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008154 Tue, 04 May 2010 06:26:42 PST Spencer DeBlog  


As I was driving in early this morning my prayers were prayers of thanksgiving to God for the elders of this church.

 

And as our meeting concluded this morning, I have even more thanks for these men.

 

We talked about staff evaluations, summer missions trips, future adult Sunday school classes and other items. 

 

They showed real love and shared much wisdom about all of these matters.

 
]]> A godly mother's word on sin http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008153 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008153 Mon, 03 May 2010 10:31:56 PST Spencer DeBlog  


“Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off the relish of spiritual things, whatever increases the authority of your body over your mind – this thing to you is sin.” -- Susanna Wesley

 

]]> Thankful for http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008151 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008151 Mon, 03 May 2010 09:48:39 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Thank you Lord

 

Thank you Lord for the people, who came Saturday and Sunday, to set up, cook, serve and clean up lunch for 200+.

 

Thank you Lord for the many people who are praying and giving toward our mission trip to Turkey.

 

Thank you Lord for the men’s octet rendition of “Love Lifted Me.” They sang it as a testimony of what You did for them.

 

Thank you Lord for a church that sits up in their seats and nods in agreement when I quote verses like these:

 

God forbid that I should boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.Galatians 6:14.

 

For when I came to you I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 1 Corinthians 2:2
]]> All I want to do... http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008145 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008145 Fri, 30 Apr 2010 15:37:12 PST Spencer DeBlog  


"Let the pastors boldly dare all things by the word of God.... Let them constrain all the power, glory, and excellence of the world to give place to and to obey the divine majesty of this Word. Let them enjoin everyone by it, from the highest to the lowest. Let them edify the body of Christ. Let them devastate Satan's reign. Let them pasture the sheep, kill the wolves, instruct and exhort the rebellious. Let them bind and loose thunder and lightning, if necessary, but let them do all according to the Word of God."



-- John Calvin, "Sermons on the Epistle to the Ephesians"

 

 

This is what I want to do:

 

boldly dare

constrain all to give place

enjoin everyone

devastate Satan's reign

pasture sheep

kill wolves

bind and loose thunder and lightning

all according to the Word of God

 

Please pray for me.
]]> Prayer http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008143 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008143 Thu, 29 Apr 2010 14:06:24 PST Spencer DeBlog
I hope that many can join us on Friday evening for our prayer summit.

We will meet here at church from 7 till about 8:30.

Wayne, Dan and Tim will be leading us in a time of singing, sharing and praying.



 

Here is a quote from R.A. Torrey on prayer.

I think Torrey came up from Chicago to preac at RBC (Union Tabernacle) back in the 20s.

I like the clarity and power of this short writing on the paradox of prayer.



 

One of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith is that God wants us to talk to Him about everything that is going on in our lives, even though He already knows everything. So why pray'

If you’ve ever wrestled with that question, perhaps the thoughts of the 19th-century preacher R. A. Torrey can help. Among the reasons he gave for prayer are these:



  • Because there is a devil, and prayer is a God-appointed way to resist Him (Eph. 6:12-13, 18).



  • Because prayer is God’s way for us to obtain what we need from Him (Lk. 11:3-13; Jas. 4:2).



  • Because prayer is the means God has appointed for us to find “grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16).



  • Because prayer with thanksgiving is God’s way for us to obtain freedom from anxiety and to receive “the peace of God” (Phil. 4:6-7).



Besides these reasons, it’s enough to read the command in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing,” and realize that God wants us to talk with Him. Yes, He is all-knowing, but He also desires our fellowship. When we seek God’s face in prayer, we strengthen our relationship with Him. That’s the most important reason to pray.

 

]]> What I have been up to lately http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008133 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008133 Mon, 26 Apr 2010 09:51:28 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Listened to a few of the talks from Together for the Gospel. I really liked them. 

 

Cracked up at Right Ho Jeeves. I can’t remember the last book that had me chuckling, laughing and spitting Coke Zero through my nose like that!

 

Praying and meditating about what to share at the Youth ministry on Wednesday night. Dan invited me to come in and speak to the High School this week. I want to do a good job. I don’t want to embarrass my kids.

 

Praying through the list of people in our parenting class (from Anderson through to Wright. 54 in all)

 

Rylie and I used a can of Cuban Café Bustelo to make iced coffees with brown sugar. Delicious.

 

Took the family to see the play "Holes" at Racine Theater Guild. Fun.

 

Visited one of our seniors in ICU who seems to be preparing for his departure. He was not able to communicate. But I had the great joy of praying with his family in the assurance that husband/dad/grandpa is going immediately to Jesus when he departs. There is no substitute for the deep and abiding assurance of salvation in moments like that.

 

Party with the Pastors Saturday evening was great.

I met new people who…

 


  • Learned how to study the Bible by watching a John MacArthur program on VCY.

  • Wandered away from the church ten years ago and are just now coming back.

  • Had sincere questions about how God’s Word applies in their situations.

  • Just moved in from out of town and made it a priority to research and find a solid Bible church as soon as they moved here.

  • Really appreciate that the sermons are directly from God’s Word without apology or distraction.

  • Told me that they had never visited a church where so many people greeted them (and even invited them into their homes) so quickly and sincerely.

]]> who spends himself in a worthy cause http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008130 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008130 Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:15:32 PST Spencer DeBlog
Exactly one hundred years ago today Theodore Roosevelt delivered the great speech with these lines in it. Speech at the Sorbonne, April 23, 1910. (thanks to Al Mohler for reminding me)

 

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

]]> prayer idea http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008129 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008129 Fri, 23 Apr 2010 08:13:04 PST Spencer DeBlog
I did something different in my prayer time this morning and really enjoyed it.

I wrote down names (about 25 or so) of people who have been on my heart lately.

Then I read a chapter (Ephesians 4).

Then I went through those names and prayed one verse from the chapter for each of them.

It enjoyed seeing God's perfect Word as my hope and prayer for each of these people.

]]> marriage and parenting http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008127 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008127 Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:10:50 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

I am working on the notes for our Sunday evening parenting class.  The subject this week is -- marriage and parenting.

 

These are a couple of wonderful paragraphs from William Farley's book.

 

I cannot imagine a mother or father/ husband or wife who would not have to say “Ouch!” after reading them. I hope they don’t hurt too much... 

 

The message that our marriage preaches either repels or attracts our children. God wants your child to watch your marriage and think, “I want a marriage like that, and I want the God that produced it.” Or, “When I think of the beauty of the gospel, I think of my parents’ marriage. I want to be part of a church that is loved by God the way my dad loves my mother. I want to be part of a church that finds its joy in submitting to Christ as my mother joyfully submits to my father.”

 

But when a husband is unfaithful to his wife, verbally belittles her, loves his children more than her, or takes her for granted, his marriage says, “Christ’s love is not that great. He loves us only when we perform. You can’t trust this Savior. You can’t meet his expectations. He doesn’t keep his promises. Why serve a fickle despot?” His deeds say, “Many things can separate us from the love of Christ.”

 

But when a wife tells her children to obey Christ, yet doesn’t trust him enough to take care of her relationship with an imperfect husband, but seeks to control him, resists his authority, refuses to respect him, and declines to serve him, her actions speak loudly. They say, “The Son of God cannot be trusted. He promises to exalt the humble, but I don’t believe he will exalt me. He says he will take care of those who submit to lawful authority, but I don’t really believe that. If I don’t take care of myself, who will?” In most cases her children will internalize what she does, not what she says.

 

Like I said… Ouch! 

 

What is my marriage saying about the gospel? Is the love of Christ vibrantly displayed in me?

 
]]> It is not about you http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008124 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008124 Wed, 21 Apr 2010 08:58:23 PST Spencer DeBlog  


It is not about you

 

I really enjoyed this riff by Carl Trueman about how common it is for Christian teachers to emphasize things like… everyone is special, there is no one else like you, follow your dreams,

 

This belief that we are each special is, by and large, complete tosh.  Most of us are mediocre, make unique contributions only in the peculiar ways we screw things up, and could easily be replaced as husband, father or employee, by somebody better suited to the task.  The mythology nevertheless helps to sell things and allows us feel good about ourselves; indeed, the older you get, the more things it sells, from gym memberships, to cosmetic surgery, to hair pieces, to botox injections; but it is just mythology - the whole of human history so far strongly suggests that, as you get old, you cease to be as cool, and that you inevitably find that life just isn't as sweet as it was when you were eighteen.



Now, just for the record, I am a good Calvinist, and I certainly believe each individual has a destiny; what concerns me is the way in which our tendency to think of ourselves as special and unique (which we all are in some ways - D.N.A. etc.) bleeds over into a sense of special destiny whereby the future, or at least the future of myself, comes to be the priority and to trump all else.  



Put bluntly, when I read the Bible it seems to me that the church is the meaning of human history; but it is the church, a corporate body, not the distinct individuals who go to make up her membership.  Of course, all of us individuals have our gifts and our roles to play: the Lord calls us each by name and numbers the very hairs of our heads; but, to borrow Paul's analogy of the body, we have no special destiny in ourselves taken as isolated units, any more than bits of our own bodies do in isolation from each other.   When I act, I act as a whole person; my hand has no special role of its own; it acts only in the context of being part of my overall body.  With the church, the destiny of the whole is greater than the sum of the destinies of individual Christians.



This is an important insight which should profoundly shape our thinking and, indeed, our praying.  My special destiny as a believer is to be part of the church; and it is the church that is the big player in God's wider plan, not me.  That puts me, my uniqueness, my importance, my role, in definite perspective.  The problem today is that too many have the idea that God's primary plan is for them, and the church is secondary, the instrument to the realization of their individual significance. 

 

You can find the whole article at reformation21.org

 

It is a good word for us because we slip into self-centeredness so easily.

 

We are capable of taking a verse like Ephesians 2:10 and making it about how everyone in the church has to move over in order to let me be me. How crazy is that? 

 
]]> Prayer from Proverbs 3 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008121 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008121 Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:52:44 PST Spencer DeBlog Last night, at RBC Board meeting, I handed out this prayer guide to all the men before we broke into our prayer groups for the evening. 


 


My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments,

for length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.

 

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness [kindness and truth] forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good success [repute] in the sight of God and man.

 

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

 

Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. 

It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.

 

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof,

for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

 

Proverbs Three

 

Prayer requests from this passage:

 

That we would remember God’s teaching by keeping it in our hearts. We forget teaching so quickly. Our minds and hearts are feeble. We are so easily distracted.

 

Only the Lord can place kindness and truth together fully and perfectly. Each one of us misses the mark by being too soft (sacrificing truth) or too harsh (sacrificing kindness). As board members, we must be men of good repute. This good repute (and success/favor with God and man) comes when steadfast love and faithfulness are always present in our hearts.

 

We need wisdom. But the biggest barrier is the so-called-wisdom of our self-centered thinking. We need the Lord’s help to stop leaning on our own understanding.

Seven words make all the difference here: Be not wise in your own eyes. Ask the Spirit of God for the grace-gifts of repentance, humility, and a teachable heart. Confess our need to turn away from evil. Pray that the Holy Spirit would bring conviction to those in our flock who are playing with evil.

 

Ask for wisdom and courage to honor the Lord with our wealth – both individually (your own households) and corporately (as stewards of the church’s resources).

 

Thank the Lord for His correction, discipline and reproof. Ask Him for humility to receive it with thanksgiving. Ask Him for courage to deliver His Word to others.

 

]]> Unintentional sins http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008119 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008119 Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:30:21 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Yesterday our text was Leviticus four and the topic was unintentional sins.


 

 


 

Repeatedly in that chapter, God calls unintended sins – sins – for which the worshiper must bring a sin offering of atonement and receive forgiveness. In other words, though the sin is hidden from the sinner it is still chargeable to the sinner.


 

 


 

Here are the David Powlison quotes I mentioned in yesterday’s sermon.


 

 


 

 


 

David Powlison


 

The Bible's view of sin certainly includes the high-handed sins where evil approaches full volitional awareness. But sin also includes what we simply are, and the perverse ways we think, want, remember, and react.   Most sin is invisible to the sinner because it is simply how the sinner works, how the sinner perceives, wants, and interprets things.


 

 


 

David Powlison


 

Sin - the desires we pursue, the beliefs we hold, the habits we obey as second nature - is intrinsically deceitful. If we knew we were deceived, we would not be deceived. But we are deceived, unless awakened through God's truth and Spirit. Sin is a darkened mind, drunkenness, animal-like instinct and compulsion, madness, slavery, ignorance, stupor. People often think that to define sin as unconscious removes human responsibility. How can we be culpable for what we did not sit down and choose to do? But the Bible takes the opposite track. The unconscious and semiconscious nature of much sin simply testifies to the fact that we are steeped in it. Sinners think, want, and act sinlike by nature, nurture, and practice.


 

 


 

Some texts to meditate on…


 

 


 

Psalm 19:12


 

Psalm 51:3, 10


 

Psalm 139:23-24


 

Proverbs 3:7


 

Hebrews 3:13


 

Hebrews 4:12-13


 

 


 

 
]]> A poem http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008114 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008114 Sat, 17 Apr 2010 08:01:15 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Samuel Rogers wrote this poem in 1782.

 

A Wish

 









Mine be a cot beside the hill,

A bee-hive's hum shall sooth my ear;

A willowy brook, that turns a mill,

With many a fall shall linger near.



The swallow, oft, beneath my thatch,

Shall twitter from her clay-built nest;

Oft shall the pilgrim lift the latch,

And share my meal, a welcome guest.



Around my ivy'd porch shall spring

Each fragrant flower that drinks the dew;

And Lucy, at her wheel, shall sing

In russet gown and apron blue.



The village-church, among the trees,

Where first our marriage-vows were giv'n,

With merry peals shall swell the breeze,

And point with taper spire to heav'n.


 
]]> What I did today http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008112 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008112 Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:52:02 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Spent the morning out at Shepherd’s in Union Grove with Bill Amstutz. That ministry has Christ at the center and evangelism as the core value. I so appreciate Bill. We had a great chat about leadership. I need men like him speaking into my life.

 

Had lunch today with another great guy. I won’t name him here. But if you are at RBC you have – no doubt – seen him serving around here in a dozen ways, always with a smile on his face. I was asking him to join our church board as a new deacon.

 

I had a meeting recently with a different man in our congregation. He called and asked to see me. He has been here a long time and knows the gospel. But he was dying on the inside because of remembered sin, shame and regret. All I did was listen and then speak the gospel, simply, into his ears. He “believes it” officially at church. But he was having trouble believing it with his own heart. He didn’t experience it in his own conscience. How many men and women are in this predicament? A little one on one interaction over the gospel might make a world of difference in their lives.
]]> money http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008111 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008111 Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:47:30 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Are you thinking about paychecks, taxes and bills? I was last night.  I found a great article online about generosity and money.  Turns out that the author is one Dan Miller. Perhaps you know him?

 

Here is part of what Dan wrote --

 

We are naturally greedy, especially in America. God has blessed us with so much and, yet, we want more. We confuse needs and wants. We are materialistic, covetous, and discontent.

 

While the Bible is clear about the sinfulness and deceit of greed, we don't see it in ourselves. We don't see the problem. We don't see how it affects our relationship with God.

 

Essential Way 1: Give to Your Local Church

 

God has specially designed the Church (read: Bride of Christ) to represent Jesus, magnify God, build up the saints, and preach the truth.

 

As you can see, God views the church highly. You should too. God wants you to give to the local church to support this ongoing ministry. Your offering helps heat the building, support the pastors (thanks!), and funds world-wide missions. Give, and give generously.

 

Essential Way 2: Creatively Be Generous to Others

 

Obvious Statement 1: Instead of always spending your money on yourself, spend it on others.

Obvious Statement 2: After all, God's the One who gave you that money in the first place.

Obvious Statement 3: Other people will really like it if you are generous to them.

 

Five quick ideas:

- pay for everyone when you go out to eat

- buy a friend a book you like

- pick up a nice gift for your folks

- over-tip

- get someone a gift card and slip it to them anonymously

 

Result of Giving: Joy! (Don't believe me? Try it!)

 


 

 
]]> only one thing http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008110 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008110 Tue, 13 Apr 2010 11:51:09 PST Spencer DeBlog  


There is only one thing that can give peace to the conscience, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ sprinkled on it. A clear understanding that Christ’s death was an actual payment of our debt to God, and that the merit of that death is made over to man when he believes, is the grand secret of inward peace. It meets every craving of conscience. It answers every accusation. It calms every fear.  

J.C. Ryle

 

 

In the last week or so I have been able to share these sentiments with some hurting people. 

 

Those who live with shame and regret.   

who are fearful and doubting and tossed to and fro.

who are feeling like they will never be good enough.

 

The only thing that will save them is the blood of Jesus Christ.  The only thing that I can do, in conversation with them, is try and give them a clear understanding of of it.  And I hope and pray that the Spirit will apply it to their hearts and consciences.

 

 
]]> sitting in on sunday's sermon http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008106 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008106 Mon, 12 Apr 2010 13:34:55 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Some favorite points from Darien’s sermon:

 

God’s will of decree can never be thwarted. God’s will of command can and often is thwarted.

 

Our minds need to be renewed because they have been corrupted by sin.

 

If there were a diet plan for eating ice-cream and Oreos, I would be all over it.

 

We serve a gracious and loving Father. He does not want us chasing dreams and waiting for subjective impressions. He has spoken to us in a voice that is very, very clear.

 

"Cue up joke about hair loss and insert it here."

 

The struggle we face is not so much knowing and finding out what to do. The struggle we face is being willing to obey what we know to be true.

 

Psalm 119:59, 67, 93, 98-99, 105, 165

 

I thank the Lord for Darien’s faithful  teaching ministry.

 

 
]]> Walking around the church http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008105 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008105 Mon, 12 Apr 2010 09:23:39 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Since Darien was in the pulpit on Sunday, I got to do something I absolutely LOVE to do and almost NEVER get to do. 

I got to walk around church, pop into every room, and see what was going on…

 

Mrs. Possing’s class was writing letters to children in Honduras. They each put a Bible verse in their letter and then whatever else they wanted to include by way of first grade conversation. Here is one letter from the boys I helped. I wish you could see it in seven-year-old writing. 

But here it is:

 

Dear Julio,

A verse. Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Psalm 32:1.

I like orange soda the best.

Love,

Your friend

 

During second service I was walking through the lobby and preparing to turn and head back down the hall. The service had been going for about 20 minutes. I heard the front doors open and I turned to see who it was. I figured it was one of the deacons returning from checking on the parking lot or somebody who was running pretty late.

I recognized the man. He was a friend of Wayne’s whom I had met at Starbuck’s last week. He was coming to RBC for the very first time. 

I immediately welcomed him, telling him how glad I was to see him. 

I was then able to take him around the side (since I know where Wayne and Carol always sit) and get him a seat near Wayne. After I dropped him off and walked down the hall it kind of hit me. Here is somebody brand new. 

Never been to RBC before. 

Coming in late. Not sure where to go. 

And he probably only knows two people in the whole church. 

One of those people “just happens” to be the only person passing right by the front door while he is walking in. 
]]> I've Got Ten More http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008097 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008097 Fri, 09 Apr 2010 09:01:37 PST Spencer DeBlog   Ten More Things I am Thankful for Today...




  1. The generous gift of a gym membership from a kind couple at RBC. Enables us to run (and/or sit in the sauna) on cold, rainy days like yesterday.



  2. Bruce and Sally. I have seen them at church serving and helping in such a wide variety of ways.



  3. Thankful too for the many, many other couples and singles like Bruce and Sally.



  4. How beautiful Augusta looks in the Spring.



  5. John A. From his cubicle in our office he enables me and our entire church staff team to function far more effectively than we would without his wisdom.



  6. Godly women influencing our daughter (Amy P., Kelly, Courtney, etc.)



  7. Godly men influencing our sons (Dan, Drew, Wayne, Tim, Tony, Steve S., Pete, Chris V., etc.)



  8. Dave and Thom who have been filming our services every Sunday.



  9. Local access Cable Channel 25 who has agreed to air our services every Sunday at 3pm.



  10. That God would look on me with love. Because of His choice, His covenant, His Son, he looks on me with love because He sees me in His Son's perfection.





 
]]> Ten Things I am Thankful for http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008092 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008092 Thu, 08 Apr 2010 06:43:39 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Ten Things I am thankful for…

 


  1. “O Happy Day” from last Sunday.

  2. Email exchanges with the Phipps in Turkey. What a great partner in the gospel.

  3. Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs

  4. Strong time of Bible study at Starbucks with Sam, Wayne, Dan Miller, Bill Shook, Rob Druktenis, and some other men including a couple of guys from the Milwaukee Brewers.

  5. What I learned while preparing to teach the parenting class this Sunday night.

  6. Donna Bell’s service in the Cross Walk ministry.

  7. Cadbury Crème Eggs

  8. Good news about the gospel work in Kabardino-Bulkaria.

  9. Names of thirteen new members presented in our last elders meeting.

  10. “No More Night” from last Sunday.

]]> he will wrap you in a jealous love http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008090 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008090 Wed, 07 Apr 2010 09:56:42 PST Spencer DeBlog This is one of those quotes that hurts and helps.  Pondering it again really blessed me today.


 



OTHERS MAY, YOU CANNOT



If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

(Matthew 16:24-25)



If God has called you to be truly like Jesus in all your spirit, He will draw you into a life of crucifixion and humility. He will put on you such demands of obedience that you will not be allowed to follow other Christians. In many ways, He seems to let other good people do things which He will not let you do.


Others who seem to be very religious and useful may push themselves, pull wires, and scheme to carry out their plans, but you cannot. If you attempt it, you will meet with such failure and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.


Others can brag about themselves, their work, their successes, their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing. If you begin to do so, He will lead you into some deep mortification that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.


Others will be allowed to succeed in making great sums of money, or having a legacy left to them, or in having luxuries, but God may supply you only on a day-to-day basis, because He wants you to have something far better than gold, a helpless dependence on Him and His unseen treasury.


The Lord may let others be honored and put forward while keeping you hidden in obscurity because He wants to produce some choice, fragrant fruit for His coming glory, which can only be produced in the shade.


God may let others be great, but keep you small. He will let others do a work for Him and get the credit, but He will make you work and toil without knowing how much you are doing. Then, to make your work still more precious, He will let others get the credit for the work which you have done; this to teach you the message of the Cross, humility, and something of the value of being cloaked with His nature.


The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch on you, and with a jealous love rebuke you for careless words and feelings, or for wasting your time, which other Christians never seem distressed over.


So make up your mind that God is an infinite Sovereign and has a right to do as He pleases with His own, and that He may not explain to you a thousand things which may puzzle your reason in His dealings with you.


God will take you at your word. If you absolutely sell yourself to be His slave, He will wrap you up in a jealous love and let other people say and do many things that you cannot. Settle it forever; you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit, He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue or chaining your hand or closing your eyes in ways which others are not dealt with. However, know this great secret of the Kingdom: When you are so completely possessed with the Living God that you are, in your secret heart, pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life, you will have found the vestibule of heaven, the high calling of God.


By G.D. Watson


(Thanks to Jim Elliff's ministry Christian Communicator's Worldwide for first posting this)

]]> Baseball http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008086 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008086 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 06:39:08 PST Spencer DeBlog I just came heard this poem yesterday (opening day) and I love it. 


Baseball

John Updike, 1932-2009



It looks easy from a distance,

easy and lazy, even,

until you stand up to the plate

and see the fastball sailing inside,

an inch from your chin,

or circle in the outfield

straining to get a bead

on a small black dot

a city block or more high,

a dark star that could fall

on your head like a leaden meteor.



The grass, the dirt, the deadly hops

between your feet and overeager glove:

football can be learned,

and basketball finessed, but

there is no hiding from baseball

the fact that some are chosen

and some are not - those whose mitts

feel too left-handed,

who are scared at third base

of the pulled line drive,

and at first base are scared

of the shortstop's wild throw

that stretches you out like a gutted deer.



There is nowhere to hide when the ball's

spotlight swivels your way,

and the chatter around you falls still,

and the mothers on the sidelines,

your own among them, hold their breaths,

and you whiff on a terrible pitch

or in the infield achieve

something with the ball so

ridiculous you blush for years.

It's easy to do. Baseball was

invented in America, where beneath

the good cheer and sly jazz the chance

of failure is everybody's right,

beginning with baseball.

]]> reading, exhortation, doctrine http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008085 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008085 Mon, 05 Apr 2010 13:21:38 PST Spencer DeBlog Bible study for tomorrow morning's elder meeting is on


1 Timothy 4:13-16

 

These three things require the giving of attention.

 

The reading is seen in Luke 4:16-17 and Acts 13:15

 

The exhortation is the public appeal to the conscience and conduct of the hearers that follows the reading.

 

The teaching or the doctrine is the instructional content that comes from the reading and informs the exhortation.

 

Questions:

 

Are we giving proper attention to these things?

 

Where are we strong?  Where are we weak?

 
]]> Morning Prayer http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008078 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008078 Mon, 05 Apr 2010 06:07:39 PST Spencer DeBlog  


In my prayer time today, this one from the Valley of Vision really blessed me.

Take some time to read it, pray it and make it your own.

The death and suffering of Jesus was the deepest. There is none more cruel.

Now the exaltation and advocacy of Jesus (for us!) is the highest and most effective. What a Savior!

 

 

Redeemer,



Thou who wast lifted up upon a cross

art ascended to highest heaven.

 

Thou, who as man of sorrows wast crowned with thorns,

art now as Lord of life wreathed with glory.



 

Once, no shame more deep than Thine,

no agony more bitter, no death more cruel.



 

Now, no exaltation more high,

no life more glorious,

no advocate more effective.



What more could be done than Thou hast done!



Thy death is my life, Thy resurrection my peace,

Thy ascension my hope, Thy prayers my comfort.

 
]]> A job for you http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008072 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008072 Thu, 01 Apr 2010 07:11:31 PST Spencer DeBlog
 

If you are willing, I have something for you to do each of the next four days.


 




 

Friday – Join us at 7pm for the Good Friday service at Calvary Memorial. I will be preaching on Leviticus 16 and Matthew 27: Forgiven and Forgotten. Calvary is located at 4001 Washington Ave.


 




 

Saturday – Pray for our Easter morning services. 100+ of our music people will be practicing Saturday morning. Pray for their joy in service. Pray that Christ would be marveled at and hoped in by all who believe. Pray that our gospel preaching would take root in the hearts of those who have not yet believed.


 




 

Sunday – Bring someone with you to our services. In our community almost everybody attends someplace on Easter. Do what you can to invite them and bring them along with you.


 




 

Monday – Write a note of thanks to a believer (musician, children's worker, elder, deacon...) who served with joy on Sunday. Pray for all of those who heard the gospel on Sunday. Use some of these passages as you pray for them: Mark 4:1-9; Eph. 2:1-7; 1 Thess. 2:13.


 

 

]]> RBC, Here let us cast anchor! http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008069 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008069 Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:19:34 PST Spencer DeBlog Let the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, be the rule of our faith and practice. Holding this principle we travel upon the king’s highway. The road may sometimes seem narrow, and our faith may be severely tried, but we shall not be allowed greatly to err. Departing from this principle we enter on a pathless wilderness. There is no telling what we may be led to believe or do. Forever let us bear this in mind. Here let us cast anchor. Here let us abide.


J.C. Ryle

]]> what is man? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008066 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008066 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:56:29 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Pascal

 

What sort of wonder is man? How monstrous is he? How chaotic, how paradoxical?

Judge of all things, ruler of all beasts, feeble earthworm himself, repository of truth, sinkhole of doubt and error, glory of the world, refuse of the universe. Such is man.

Let us agree that man infinitely transcends man, and that without the aid of faith, man will remain inconceivable to himself.

 

David

 

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

and crowned him with glory and honor.

Psalm 8

 

Solomon

 

See, this alone I found, that God made man upright, but they have sought out many schemes.

Ecclesiastes 7:29

 

Paul

 

… we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us…

Ephesians 2
]]> donuts & chocolate milk http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008065 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008065 Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:52:56 PST Spencer DeBlog

 


Yesterday during welcome and announcements the children’s choir looked so cute that I spontaneously told them “All of your parents should take you out for donuts and chocolate milk!” 

 

I didn’t plan to say it. 

I got caught up in the moment. 

These things happen.

 

So this morning I got an email from Eric Nelson. 

 

He chronicled his “submission to Pastor’s teaching” on video. 

 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SME1K-Yq188

]]> keep praying http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008057 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008057 Sat, 27 Mar 2010 07:02:45 PST Spencer DeBlog  


What a great time of prayer we enjoyed last night.


Thank you to Wayne and Tim for your leadership.





The testimony from Adam&Katie was unforgettable.


The line that keeps ringing in my ears is this one.


“I was waiting, just hoping and waiting, for somebody to ask me if I really knew Christ. I wanted to. But I did not know how. Then finally I met somebody who asked.”





Oh for the compassion and clarity to ask that question!





Please take time today to keep praying for our services this Sunday and next.





Pray that God would be glorified in the lives and through the ministry of His people.


Pray that our many visitors would see the love of Christ displayed in our actions and attitudes.


Pray that all who are present would hear the Word of God and the message of the gospel.


Pray that hearts and minds would grasp and receive Jesus as Savior.


 

]]> prayer tonight http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008054 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008054 Fri, 26 Mar 2010 11:40:08 PST Spencer DeBlog Can't wait for the prayer summit tonight at seven.


I'm thinking about sharing from Genesis 18, Exodus 32 and Numbers 14.


I will try not to turn "prayer meeting" into "preaching meeting" but hese texts are like a tug-of-war of powerful prayer and God wants us to grip them and pull with all of our might!


Join us tonight if you are able.


 


 

]]> leadership http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008050 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008050 Thu, 25 Mar 2010 08:58:07 PST Spencer DeBlog Do you think you might be called to ministry?  Maybe some of you do.


Do you hope that the Pastors in your life are truly called to the ministry?  I trust that all of you do.


So how do you know if one is called to the ministry?  I love what Spurgeon lays down here:


 

“True and genuine piety is necessary as the first indispensable requisite for ministry.  Whatever call a man may pretend to have if he has not been called to holiness he certainly has not been called to the ministry.”

 


God has given two lists for testing and choosing elders/church leaders.  Much commentary and debate is written about understanding and qualifying each individual qualification.  But the entire list of qualifications is remarkable unremarkable. 


It is not hard to understand or interpret as a whole.  I really like D.A. Carson's comment:



 

These verses teach us that the primary characteristic of the Christian elder/pastor/overseer is that his life constantly reflects Christian values, morality, conduct, and integrity; that’s the baseline.

In some respects, the list is remarkable for being unremarkable.

In other words, there is nothing about superior IQ, charisma, powerful personality or the like. The Christian minister is supposed to be gentle, not supposed to get drunk, and so forth: the list is remarkable for being unremarkable.

Indeed, with only a couple of exceptions, all of the qualifications listed here are elsewhere in the New Testament demanded of all Christians.

What this means, then, is that the Christian pastor must exemplify in his own life the virtues and graces that are demanded of all the people of God.

Elders must be "above reproach" – in a sense, blameless. This doesn’t mean that such a person is sinlessly perfect; there’s too much in Scripture to the contrary of that sort of expectation. What it does mean is that there is no obvious inconsistency or flaw that everyone agrees is there and serves as a reproach to the man.
]]> What I'm working on http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008041 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008041 Wed, 24 Mar 2010 07:29:20 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Really enjoyed a gospel-saturated time of prayer this morning after reading a wonderfully gospel-filled sermon by Martyn Lloyd Jones earlier this morning. 

 

Email exchange with Brian Phipps in Turkey about our upcoming trip to minister with him there.

 

Call to Paul Tautges in Sheboygan about his recent trip to Kabardino-Bulkaria.

 

Working with Wayne on the Prayer Summit for this Friday. I love praying with Wayne. 

 

Working with Darien on the next parenting class for Firm Foundations. We will be using “Gospel Powered Parenting” by William Farley as our class book.

 

Preparing gospel messages for Palm Sunday and Easter.

 

Studying ahead for good Friday message for our service at Calvary Memorial.

 

Thankful that all of my work, imperfect as it is, is possible because of the perfect work of my Savior.
]]> Friday Prayer Summit http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008039 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008039 Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:00:49 PST Spencer DeBlog Please join us this Friday at seven p.m.


 

Wayne and I will be leading a prayer summit here at RBC. We are convening this special prayer meeting so that we can plead with God together.

 

We want to have an effective gospel outreach on Palm Sunday and Easter.

 

We long to see more people from our families, workplaces, streets and schools come to know Christ.

 

If you have these same desires please join us for prayer this Friday evening.
]]> a minister's prayer http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008033 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008033 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 11:03:51 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

I mentioned yesterday that I was deeply convicted by my own study and preaching for that sermon in particular.

 
I hope that my heart is always in it.  I pray that my interaction with the Word is always formative for my own soul. Some times and texts are special. And this was one of those.
 


 

A couple of our pastors/elders mentioned to me in the hallway that after hearing the sermon on spiritual leadership they were ready to resign.  They were joking (...I think...) 

 
I certainly felt unworthy to deliver the message.  But I knew that it was God's Word that He wanted spoken to His beloved people.

 
Please pray for me and for all of the leaders here at RBC. Here is a prayer from Valley of Vision titled “The Minister’s Prayer”


 

 


 

A Minister’s Prayer


 

 


 

"O MY LORD,


 

Let not my ministry be approved only by men,


 

           or merely win the esteem and affections of people;


 

But do the work of grace in their hearts,


 

           call in thy elect,


 

           seal and edify the regenerate ones,


 

           and command eternal blessings on their souls.


 

Save me from self-opinion and self-seeking;


 

Water the hearts of those who hear thy Word,


 

           that seed sown in weakness may be raised in power;


 

Cause me and those that hear me


 

           to behold thee here in the light of special faith,


 

           and hereafter in the blaze of endless glory;


 

Make my every sermon a means of grace to myself,


 

           and help me to experience the power of thy dying love,


 

           for thy blood is balm,


 

           thy presence bliss,


 

           thy smile heaven,


 

           thy cross the place where truth and mercy meet.


 

Look upon the doubts and discouragements of my ministry


 

           and keep me from self-importance;


 

I beg pardon for my many sins, omissions, infirmities,


 

           as a man, as a minister;


 

Command thy blessings on my weak, unworthy labors,


 

           and on the message of salvation given;


 

Stay with thy people,


 

           and may thy presence be their portions and mine.


 

When I preach to others let not my words be merely elegant and masterly,


 

           my reasoning polished and refined,


 

           my performance powerless and tasteless,


 

           but may I exhalt thee and humble sinners,


 

O Lord of power and grace,


 

            all hearts are in thy hands, all events at thy disposal,


 

            set the seal of thy almighty will upon my ministry."


 

 


 

 

]]> Leadership http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008028 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008028 Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:06:31 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Six Points from Leviticus about Spiritual Leaders





Courageous to deal with Sin no matter who or what it is


    Exodus 32


Covered by the blood


    Lev. 8 and 9


    Clearly communicate the Word of God


    Lev. 10:8-11


Courageously confront with the Word of God


    Titus 2:15; Hebrews 13:17; Acts 20


Conformed to a high and Holy standard


    Lev 21:1-15; Titus 1; I Timothy 3


Complete and having integrity


    Lev. 21:16-24





John Brown to a congregation whose minister is speaking hard truth to them:



He may urge on you unpalatable truth - he may utter sharp reproofs; but recollect he has no choice; remember he is a man under authority. Put the question, Has he said anything that Christ has not said? If he has, disregard him; if he has not, blame him not, - he has but discharged his duty to his Master and to you; and recollect, you cannot in this case disregard the servant without doing dishonor to the Master. If he had been appointed to amuse you, to speak smooth things to you, you might reasonably find fault with him for his uncompromising statements and his keen rebukes. But he Watches for your soul Your spiritual improvement, your everlasting salvation, is his object; and therefore he must not, to spare your feelings, endanger your souls. It [would be] a cruel kindness in the physician, [in order] to save a little present pain, to allow a fatal disease to fix its roots in the constitution, which must by and by produce far more suffering than what is now avoided, and not only suffering, but death.


 


McCheyne to a friend upon the occasion of his ordination:


 


“Do not forget the culture of the inner man– I mean of the heart. How diligently the cavalry officer keeps his sabre clean and sharp; every stain he rubs off with the greatest care. Remember you are God’s sword, his instrument– I trust, a chosen vessel unto Him to bear His name.


In great measure, according to the purity and perfection of the instrument, will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.”

]]> Men's Retreat http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008023 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008023 Fri, 19 Mar 2010 16:29:34 PST Spencer DeBlog Join me in praying for our RBC men this weekend.


Pete H., Steve S. and Wayne are preaching.


Pray for God's Word to convict and for God's men to be really honest with one another about that conviction.


 


 


 

]]> The Test http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008008 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008008 Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:31:06 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Here is the test I shared in the sermon last Sunday. It comes out of the book “Worldliness” edited by CJ Mahaney:

 

 

Imagine I take a blind test in which my task is to identify the genuine follower of Jesus Christ. My choices are an unregenerate individual and you. The other person is your same age, living in the same city, working at a similar job (or student at same campus)…

 

For the test I am given two reports (blind with no names on them) detailing:

 

Conversations (what is the subject and tone of conversation

 

Entertainment and Television habits (how much time is spent, what is it spent on)

 

Internet activity (what sites, how long, what subjects of interest)

 

Hobbies and leisure time

 

Financial transactions (generosity, church, honesty)

 

The question is: Would I be able to tell you apart?

 

Would I discern a difference between you and your unconverted neighbor? 

Between you and an average student at your school? 

Really? 

Why?

Or why not?
]]> Ireland http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008007 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008007 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 11:43:56 PST Spencer DeBlog One year ago today...


We were in Ireland for family reunion:


DunLuce Castle built for Richard DeBurgh



Graveyard at Drumcliff



Trinity College Dublin (John Owen)


]]> In a word – Christlikeness http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008006 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008006 Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:09:24 PST Spencer DeBlog  


JI Packer on Holiness:

 

Holiness is in essence obeying God, living to God and for God, imitating god, keeping his law, taking his side against sin, doing righteousness, performing good works, following Christ’s teaching and example, worshiping God in the Spirit, loving and serving God and men out of reverence for Christ. In relation to God, holiness takes the form of a single-minded passion to please Him by love and loyalty, devotion and praise. In relation to sin, it takes the form of a resistance movement, a discipline of not gratifying the desires of the flesh, but of putting to death the deeds of the body (Galatians 5:16; Romans 8:13). Holiness is, in a word, God-taught, Spirit-wrought Christ-likeness, the sum and substance of committed discipleship, the demonstration of faith working by love, the responsive outflow in righteousness of supernatural life from the hearts of those who are born again.

 

]]> the cart http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008003 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008003 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:10:06 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Some of our Sunday School classes recently collected money to purchase a cart for a farm.

 

This is a very special farm.  It is the drug and alcohol rehabilitation ministry in Kabardino-Balkaria.

 

Men coming out of prison or off of the streets are given the opportunity to stay at this farm.  While here they must work hard every day and participate in intense Bible studies every morning and evening.  These Bible studies are all about sin and repentance. The focus is upon Christ and the gospel.  

 

Here is the new cart with some of the men involved in the ministry.

 


]]> the book on worldliness http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008001 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140008001 Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:55:32 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Worldliness: Resisting the Seduction of a Fallen World

C. J. Mahaney (Editor)

 

Life in this fallen world can draw our hearts far from God and from growth in godliness. Worldliness equips you to search your heart for the presence of worldliness and gives practical help for resisting the world's influence in the areas of media, modesty, music, and material possessions.

ISBN-13: 9781433502804

Pages: 192

 

Here are a few lines from the first chapter:

 

Here’s one verse I find easy to ignore. It’s the simple, provocative words in 1 John 2:15:

“Do not love the world or anything in the world” (NIV). There’s nothing subtle about this sentence. It’s abrupt and to the point—only ten words. It is categorical: “Do not love the world.” It’s comprehensive: “Do not love anything in the world.” And it’s intrusive, strategically aimed at whatever we desire most: “anything in the world.”

 

It forbids worldliness in no uncertain terms.

 

First John 2:15 isn’t a verse we tend to underline when we come across it in our daily Bible reading. We’re not inclined to put “Do not love the world” on an index card and rehearse it during our daily commute. We don’t hear many sermons on this verse and its prohibition of the sin of worldliness.

 

To understand this verse, you must first understand the nature of warnings. They’re not legalistic restrictions from an irritated God who doesn’t want us to enjoy ourselves.

And they aren’t relics of a bygone era, irrelevant for us today. No, warnings are expressions of God’s mercy and wisdom. They’re given for our good, to protect us from sin and its consequences.

 

So let’s ignore this warning no longer.

 

A love for the world begins in the soul. It’s subtle, not always immediately obvious to others, and often undetected by the people who are slowly succumbing to its lies. It begins with a dull conscience and a listless soul. Sin does not grieve like it once did. Passion for the Savior begins to cool. Affections grow dim. Excitement lessens for participating in the local church. Eagerness to evangelize starts to wane. Growth in godliness slows to a crawl.

 
]]> al mohler and glenn beck http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007995 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007995 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 15:00:12 PST Spencer DeBlog I like Al Mohler's response to something Glenn Beck said...


 


My concern is very different. As an evangelical Christian, my concern is the primacy of the Gospel of Christ -- the Gospel that reveals the power of God in the salvation of sinners through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church's main message must be that Gospel. The New Testament is stunningly silent on any plan for governmental or social action. The apostles launched no social reform movement. Instead, they preached the Gospel of Christ and planted Gospel churches. Our task is to follow Christ's command and the example of the apostles.

 

There is more to that story, however. The church is not to adopt a social reform platform as its message, but the faithful church, wherever it is found, is itself a social reform movement precisely because it is populated by redeemed sinners who are called to faithfulness in following Christ.

 

The Gospel is not a message of social salvation, but it does have social implications.

 

Faithful Christians can debate the proper and most effective means of organizing the political structure and the economic markets. Bringing all these things into submission to Christ is no easy task, and the Gospel must not be tied to any political system, regime, or platform.

 

 

And that brings us to the fact that the Bible is absolutely clear that injustice will not exist forever. There is a perfect social order coming, but it is not of this world. The coming of the Kingdom of Christ in its fullness spells the end of injustice and every cause and consequence of human sin. We have much work to do in this world, but true justice will be achieved only by the consummation of God's purposes and the perfection of God's own judgment.

Until then, the church must preach the Gospel, and Christians must live out its implications. We must resist and reject every false gospel and tell sinners of salvation in Christ. And, knowing that God's judgment is coming, we must strive to be on the right side of justice.

 

]]> Worldliness http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007994 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007994 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:49:13 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Our study in Leviticus is helping us to understand the importance of living holy lives in this unholy world, godly lives in an ungodly culture, clean lives in an unclean place.

 

While remaining in the world, we’re not to become like the world. In the words of John Stott, we must be “neither conformed to the world nor contaminated by it.”

 

Here is a short list of passages for further meditation:

 

Romans 12:2

 

1 John 2:15-16

 

1 Peter 1:14-16

 

2 Peter 2:20-22

 

Ephesians 4:22-24
]]> micro blog http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007967 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007967 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:14:05 PST Spencer DeBlog I am trying to microblog this week over at twitter.


http://twitter.com/SpencerDeBurgh

]]> secret things http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007961 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007961 Fri, 05 Mar 2010 12:48:52 PST Spencer DeBlog A good article for a little bit of weekend theology reading.


Here are a few snippets...


Christianity is often confusing. Reality is often confusing. There are certain things that we believe that simply must be, but they don’t “add up.” A good theologian needs to have worked through this. While we should be extremely diligent and committed to a task of understanding truth, a lack of understanding does not necessarily mean that it cannot be true. In other words, coherence is not the final and infallible test of truth.


Some people distinguish between a contradiction and a paradox. A paradox is something that may be true but beyond our understanding while a contradiction cannot be true by definition.


Of course, there are solutions, but all of them require changing what seems to be a clear teaching of Scripture as well as sacrificing one’s standing in orthodox Christianity for the sake of coherence, emotional or logical.


A very particular Scripture comes to mind here:


Deut 29:29:

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”


The “secret things” are those things that God has, for whatever reason, intentionally withheld. But, thankfully, the emphasis in this passage is on “the things revealed,” and they belong to us forever.


While there are so many things we can understand, we must recognize that there is true mystery that we must submit to. When we get the temptation to judge God by manipulating the truth, let pause and learn to find stability even when things are not as palatable or coherent as we would like them to be.


Check out the whole thing:


http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2010/03/the-incoherency-of-the-christian-faith-or-why-calvinism-is-confusing-yet-true/


 


 


 

]]> teenager in big trouble http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007957 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007957 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 06:55:05 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

In the book Age of Opportunity Paul Tripp tells a great story about finding out that his teenager daughter got into big trouble at school. 

 

He writes wonderfully about the emotions that parents feel at these moments. These emotions are powerful and natural yet they are selfish and prideful at the core.

 

Then he writes this:

 

“These situations can be greeted as moments of sovereignly given opportunity to shepherd the hearts God has exposed in our teenagers. Or they can become moments where a wedge of distance and anger is driven even more deeply between us and our teenage children.” 

 

We plan on discussing how to avoid the latter and pursue the former in our teen parenting class Sunday night.

 

If you attend RBC on Sunday mornings and don’t come to Firm Foundations on Sunday evenings… you are missing out!
]]> should I be concerned? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007953 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007953 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:29:41 PST Spencer DeBlog So I just talked with one of our deacons.  Clyde.


He was fixing something in the fellowship hall.


He explained what he was doing and then ends his explanation with this gem:


“I’m not sure it’ll work.  But if it doesn’t at least we will always think that it should have.”

]]> the simple becomes wise http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007950 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007950 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:53:59 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Proverbs 21

 

When a scoffer is punished, the simple becomes wise;

when a wise man is instructed, he gains knowledge.

 

 

What does it take to become wise?

It takes more than instruction.

 

What does it take to gain knowledge?

It takes more than the mere presence or availability of knowledge.

 

What does it take?

 

Open ears, an inquisitive mind, an acquisitive spirit, an undeniable desire.

 

Lord, make me grow in wisdom by helping me to see how simple I am.

 

Lord, cause me to gain knowledge by helping me to admit my ignorance and embrace your instruction.

 
]]> not an afterthought http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007949 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007949 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 12:16:00 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

I was very convicted as I looked over this paragraph today.

I’m thankful that our elders spent time in prayer early this morning.

Prayer is so very important. 

May it never be an afterthought here at RBC!

Here is a convicting thought written to Pastors about prayer...

 

 

It is the sin of reversing the rhythms. Instead of working in a world in which God calls everything into being with his word and redeems his people with an outstretched arm, we rearrange it as a world in which we preach the mighty word of God and in afterthought ask him to bless our speaking; a world in which we stretch out our mighty arms to help the oppressed and open our hands to assist the needy and desperately petition God to take care of those we miss. - Peterson

 
]]> lay your hand on the head of the lamb http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007947 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007947 Tue, 02 Mar 2010 06:40:46 PST Spencer DeBlog Leviticus 1:4


He shall lay his hand on the head of the offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.



 


One of the smallest yet most tightly packed books on my shelf is a classic by John Murray titled Redemption Accomplished and Applied.

 

Here is his summary of the offerings in Leviticus:

 

Sin involves a certain liability, a liability arising from the holiness of God. Sacrifice was the divinely instituted provision whereby the sin might be covered and the liability to the divine wrath and curse removed. 

In laying his hands upon the head of the offering there was transferred symbolically to the offering the sin and liability of the offerer. This is the pivot on which the transaction turned.

The notion in essence was that the sin of the offerer was imputed to the offering and the offering bore in substitutive endurance, the death penalty of that sin.
]]> I love the Church http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007944 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007944 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:34:46 PST Spencer DeBlog  


“The church should be regarded as important to Christians because of its importance to Christ. Christ founded the church (Matt. 16:18), purchased it with his blood (Acts 20:28), and intimately identifies himself with it (Acts 9:4).

 

The church is the body of Christ (Eph. 1:23; 4:12; 5:23-32; Col. 1:18, 24; 3:15; 1 Cor. 12:12-27), the dwelling place of his Spirit (Rom. 8:9, 11, 16; 1 Cor. 3:16-17; 6:11, 15-17; Eph. 2:18, 22; 4:4), and the chief instrument for glorifying God in the world.

 

Finally, the church is God’s instrument for bringing both the gospel to the nations and a great host of redeemed humanity to Himself (Rev. 5:9).”

 

–Mark Dever
]]> Top Ten http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007942 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007942 Mon, 01 Mar 2010 07:17:23 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Top Ten from this weekend.

 

So many great things happened this weekend…

 


  1. Hugging Marjorie T. on Sunday morning and finding out that it is her 89th birthday this week. She is such a joyful participant in Sunday worship you would think it is only her 39th.


 


  1. Dan giving us the free hook up at Chipotle. There were over 100 of us in there on Sunday for lunch.


 


  1. Vertical Devotion Youth Choir sounded great on Sunday morning. Sam, Eric and Katelyn nailed it on piano, drums and cello too.


 


  1. At a dinner party on Friday night I made Courtney laugh so hard that she spewed food and drink all over the table. 


 


  1. Luann’s chicken enchilada’s at the High School parent’s night Saturday.


 


  1. The skits at the High School parent’s night. Pete H. was Rocky, Guy L. was Yoda, Brain W. was the scarecrow, Rob D. was Mr. Potato Head.


 


  1. Hearing from participants in the men’s leadership class that tackling the doctrine of justification really helps them understand salvation and minister the gospel to many Catholics in our city.


 


  1. Amy came home from the store with a present for me. My very own bag of Whoppers Robin Eggs candies.


 


  1. Really honest and hope filled discussion in Teen Parenting class on Sunday evening about the right and wrong ways to communicate with our teens during times of conflict and confrontation.


 


  1. Preaching from Leviticus Sunday morning and seeing God’s people understand God’s Word.


 
]]> twitter http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007938 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007938 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:28:56 PST Spencer DeBlog I am up on twitter if you want to check it out:


http://twitter.com/spencerdeburgh


 

]]> poured for me http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007937 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007937 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:15:36 PST Spencer DeBlog This is an 18th Century Italian Hymn. 


I came across it in an old sermon on Leviticus I was reading. 


I cannot get through it without tearing up... 


Glory be to Jesus,

Who, in bitter pains,

Poured for me the lifeblood

From His sacred veins!

 

Grace and life eternal

In that blood I find;

Blest be His compassion,

Infinitely kind.

 

Blest through endless ages

Be the precious stream

Which from endless torments

Doth the world redeem.

 

Abel’s blood for vengeance

Pleaded to the skies;

But the blood of Jesus

For our pardon cries.

 

Oft as it is sprinkled

On our guilty hearts,

Satan in confusion

Terror struck departs.

 

]]> The Era of the Narcissist http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007935 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007935 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 07:55:33 PST Spencer DeBlog


 

The Era of the Narcissist

 

From a book review in First Things written by Aaron Kheriaty, M.D., who teaches Psychiatry at the University of California, Irvine.

 

Of all the astonishing features of the medieval cathedrals, one feature must stand out as particularly surprising to the modern mind: We have no idea who designed and built them. In a fashion quite foreign to contemporary practice, the architects and builders did not bother to sign their names on the cornerstones. The anonymity of the great souls responsible surely seems strange to our age. Why build the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres if you can’t take credit for it? No lasting fame? No immortalized human glory? We are, if not scandalized, at the very least perplexed by the humility of these forgotten artists who labored in obscurity. Do and disappear? This is not how we roll in the America of the twenty-first century.



The artistic and cultural norm of the anonymous artist or craftsman began to change during the so-called Enlightenment. Witness Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Confessions, a book he dedicated “to me, with the admiration I owe myself.” The book opens with these lines: “I have entered upon a performance which is without example, whose accomplishment will have no imitator. I mean to present my fellow-mortals with a man in all the integrity of nature; and this man shall be myself.” Rousseau deliberately chose his title as a response to Augustine’s work by the same name. In contrast to Rousseau’s vain self-aggrandizement, Augustine gives all glory to God, as in his opening quotation from the Book of Psalms: “Great thou art, and greatly to be praised.”

 

The symptoms of narcissism are vanity; materialism; an inflated sense of one’s own specialness or importance; antisocial behavior; little interest in emotionally close or unselfish relationships, along with a lack of empathy; exaggerated overconfidence; and a strong sense of entitlement. Sound like anyone you know?



Twenge and Campbell correctly lay much of the blame for the epidemic at the feet of the self-esteem movement, which has been enormously influential, not only in the spheres of popular psychology and education, but also as a central tenet of the “gospel of success” message heard in many evangelical megachurches. Indeed, the obsession with self-esteem has crept even into Catholic catechesis. This Trojan horse, the authors argue, has led not to health but to rampant self-centeredness. “Narcissism causes almost all of the things that Americans hoped high self-esteem would prevent, including aggression, materialism, lack of caring for others, and shallow values,” they write. “In trying to build a society that celebrates high self-esteem, self-expression, and ‘loving yourself,’ Americans have inadvertently created more narcissists—and a culture that brings out the narcissistic behavior in all of us.” The self-esteem fad apparently has backfired, but the folks at your local public or parochial grade school don’t seem to have noticed.

 

The narcissism epidemic is the common denominator underneath many contemporary trends—from grade inflation, to the crass and aggressive tone of so much entertainment, to birthday gifts for high school girls that stupefy the imagination. Breast augmentation surgery has become a common graduation gift from parents to their teenage daughters.



The Narcissism Epidemic traces the root causes of narcissism to the triumph of the therapeutic mentality, beginning in the 1970s; to changes in parenting styles (parents wanting their kids’ approval rather than children striving for parental approval); to celebrities who are “famous for being famous” and the media that transmit their endless, self-absorbed chatter; to the MySpace/Facebook/YouTube phenomenon (dubbed Web 2.0); and to easy consumer credit (which recently came crashing down). One could add to the authors’ list, the capitulation of schools, churches, and other mediating institutions of society to these trends and fads.
]]> On my desk right now http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007933 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007933 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:42:22 PST Spencer DeBlog  


We begin the book of Leviticus on Sunday and today is my last full study day. I love this book! Seriously, I know Leviticus suffers from a reputation as old, outdated, dusty and technical (put the thigh of the animal this way and wave the grain offering three times that way). But it is packed with stuff that God only says here and chooses to say in an unforgettably dramatic way.

 

So on my desk right now…

 

Open Bible.

Christopher Parkening playing through the speakers.

Bruce Waltke and Eugene Merrill and Herbert Wolf and John Sailhamer

My OT introduction notes from TMS. How many years ago did I take that class?

Coffee, water and banana
]]> marriage and covering http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007930 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007930 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 07:04:33 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

 

This word of correction from a pastor (given almost 400 years ago) is very timely. If you are married, you will do well to keep it. I have had to help many couples through the pain that comes from ignoring it. Happily, I have known the blessing of keeping it in my own marriage.

 

 

Also you must be careful to guard the honour of one another. You must not divulge, but conceal, the failings of each other; The reputation of each other must be as dear to you as your own. It is a sinful and unfaithful practice of many, both husbands and wives, who among their friends are discussing the faults of each other, which they are required in tenderness to cover up. Many peevish persons will aggravate all the faults of their spouse behind their backs.

The Mutual Duties Of Husbands And Wives

Towards Each Other 

By Richard Baxter (1615-­1691)

 

 

I have a loyal wife.

This is a blessing beyond description to me.

I can count on her. Whether I am there or not, she will cover me. She has always got my back. 

I am not married to a “peevish person” who aggravates my faults behind my back. 

For this, I am very thankful.
]]> If Hamilton could see us now… http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007929 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007929 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:19:06 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Alexander Hamilton in Federalist Papers 78

“The courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be disposed to exercise will instead of judgment, the consequence would equally be the substitution of their pleasure to that of the legislative body.”

 

What does that mean?

The role of the courts in our democracy: Interpret laws written by our representatives (the legislative body). Judge laws according to the Constitution. 

 

If judges step over those bounds and make decisions based on raw opinion or personal empathy then we will end up being ruled by the sheer will of unelected persons wearing black robes. 
]]> a fleeting vapor and snare of death http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007925 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007925 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 06:15:32 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Proverbs 21

 

I read these Proverbs on Sunday or Monday and plan to meditate on them all week long.

 

The getting of treasures by a lying tongue

is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death. 21.6

 

It looks so good, it seems so desirable. 

So much so that lying, alienating people and disregarding God are worth it. 

But is it really? Of course not.

Nobody lies, takes advantage of people, and disobeys God because they want to harm themselves! 

We do these things because we think there is profit and pleasure in the treasures and temptations that are enticing us. 

But these are fleeting vapors. 

Oh to see through the smoke and mirrors! 

Lord help me to see clearly. 

And, Lord, give this insight to my sons and daughter that they might avoid the snare of death.
]]> A word to husbands http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007924 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007924 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:38:32 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Another little gem from Richard Baxter --  

 

Don't conceal the state of your souls, nor hide your faults from one another. You are as one flesh, and should have one heart: and as it is dangerous for a man to be ignorant of his own soul so it is very hurtful to husband or wife to be ignorant of one another, in those areas where they have need of help.

 

Husbands, we need to live out Baxter’s admonition here:

 

Husbands – Are you ignorant about your wife? How is it with her heart, right now? 

What are her fears? Her hopes? 

What is threatening to steal her joy? 

What spiritual disciplines is she strong in? Which ones is she missing out on? 

What persons or pressures are draining her most this month? 

What can you do about it?

 

 
]]> Truth is not enough http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007922 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007922 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 08:14:11 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Truth is not enough

 

The truth can be a motive for holiness only if it is loved, while the natural man does not love the truth, but hates it.  Consequently, the truth, presented externally, cannot be the efficient cause of regeneration.  Louis Berkhof

 

I teach truth. 

It is my full time job to teach and preach truth publicly and then help people apply the truth individually. 

Yet knowledge of the truth is not enough. 

Berkhof is correct. 

It takes something within (an efficient cause). 

What is that? 

Or, more to the point, Who is that?

 

For the answer see –

 

John 16:13-14

Romans 8:15-17

Galatians 5:22-23

Ephesians 1:17-18

1 Corinthians 2:12-16
]]> olympics http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007917 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007917 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 08:09:38 PST Spencer DeBlog Two links that I enjoyed about the Olympics:


The first is written by Chris Tomlinson.  It compares all the tears and training and victory of Olympic athletes to the effort and end in the Christian life.


thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2010/02/18/i%e2%80%99ve-given-up-everything-for-this/


The second one cracked me up.  It consists of suggestions for improvement to the Winter games offered by Stephen Altrogge.


www.theblazingcenter.com/2010/02/the-olympics-would-be-awesome-if.html


 


 

]]> Every Thou shalt not mirrors a Thou shall http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007913 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007913 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 13:52:37 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

In preaching on the Ten Commandments John Calvin said that "Thou shalt not kill" is not fulfilled merely by abstaining from all injury or wish to inflict injury; it means in addition that we are to aid our neighbor's life by all that is in our power. God forbids us to injure and hurt our brother, for he would have us hold his life to be dear and valuable to us. So when he forbids, he also at the same time demands all avenues of love that can contribute to the life of our neighbor.
]]> Decide to be patient with each other http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007910 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007910 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:20:37 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I re-read Richard Baxter on marriage recently. His advice is frank, realistic and helpful.

 

Here is Baxter’s advice on living in peace with your husband or wife:

 

Division with your spouse will pain and upset your whole life ... Just as you do not wish to hurt your own self and are quick to care for your own wounds; so you should take notice of any break in the peace of your marriage and quickly seek to heal it.

 

Fighting chills love, fighting makes your spouse undesirable to you in your mind. Wounding is separating; to be tied together through marital bonds while your hearts are estranged is to be tormented. To be inwardly adversaries, while outwardly husband and wife turns your home and delight into a prison.

 

Do not forget that you are both diseased persons, full of infirmities; and therefore expect the fruit of those infirmities in each other; and do not act surprised about it, as if you had never known of it before. Decide to be patient with one another; remembering that you took one another as sinful, frail, imperfect persons, and not as angels, or as blameless and perfect.
]]> God is ready! http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007909 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007909 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:43:31 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Of the more excellent nature any blessing is that we stand in need of, the more ready God is to bestow it in answer to prayer. 

Jonathan Edwards
]]> An Update http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007907 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007907 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 05:38:46 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Last week

 

Had a good trip to Hutchison Kansas to preach at the Marriage conference.

 

Amy was all set to come with me – but got Bronchitis! She was up coughing the entire night before we were due to leave the next morning. She stayed home. 

 

Met sweet believers from three different churches in Kansas at the conference.  Especially impressed by several new believers. Don’t you just love talking with new believers?

 

Wasn’t trying to time it, but I realized that I finished the last line in the book I was reading exactly as the wheels of the plane touched down in Chicago. 

 

This week

 

Wrapping up the book of Exodus this Sunday.

Working on Leviticus in order to begin February 28.

Excited to hear Wayne’s sermon from Jude last Sunday on my Ipod.

 

Good board meeting Monday night. Darien’s voice was weak (sore throat) but his leadership on a couple of key matters was very strong. Thankful for him.

 

Hoping to get out and visit a few seniors on Thursday. 

 

Planning to finish working through the references on the Ten

Commandments in family Bible time this week.

 

Watching NBC’s primetime coverage of the Olympics on the evenings when we are able.
]]> what it is all about http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007894 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007894 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:06:36 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I read these verses today. 

They absolutely thrill me. 

They are what my ministry is all about!

 

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.

 

Do not be deceived – Do not dismiss sin. Do not go light on sin in an effort to gain influence with sinners. Do not sweep your own sin under the rug because somebody else’s seems worse.

 

such were some of you – The past tense of the verb means everything to us. It means there is hope. It means that (in Christ and by His Spirit) people change!

 

you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified – The passive voice of the verbs means everything to us. It means that our gospel is all of God. All of grace. Not by changing ourselves, not by stopping something and starting something. But by the Spirit of our God placing us into the Name and the Death and the Life of the Son of God.
]]> abortion and Justice Blackmun http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007893 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007893 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:13:25 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Roger Nicole was an esteemed Professor of Theology at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

 

This is his letter to Justice Harry Blackmun upon the occasion of Blackmun's retirement from the Supreme Court back in 1994.

* * *

April 13, 1994



Mr. Justice Harry A. Blackmun

United States Supreme Court

Washington, D.C.



Your Honor:



The Orlando Sentinel reports that in the prospect of your impending retirement from the U.S. Supreme Court you are wondering what you will be remembered for...

To my mind nothing else that you ever have done can approximate the impact of your support of the majority opinion of the Court in the case of Roe vs. Wade.



This has opened the door to millions of abortions for the sake of expediency or selfish motives. It has encouraged millions of women and thousands of physicians to participate in this murderous course.



In 4 B.C. Herod the Great ordered the killing of perhaps a few dozens of babies, but his name remains famous for this "massacre of the innocents" (Matthew 2:16).



In the Civil War of 1861-65, one of the bloodiest on record in terms of the size of the armies involved, there were perhaps close to 500,000 casualties. But Roe vs. Wade has made already 30 million victims since 1973, and this number grows every day.



In World War II, the USA suffered somewhat more than 400,000 deaths due to the conflict: this is only 1/75th of the number of the abortion hecatomb.



In the Viet Nam hostilities there were some 60,000 fatalities. You would need 500 Viet Nam walls, enough to encircle the whole of D.C., to record those put to death by abortion.



The infamous holocaust engineered by the Nazis brought death to some 6,000,000 Jews and other innocent people. The name of Hitler is inextricably associated with this monstrous atrocity. Yet Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald, Treblinka and others together exterminated only one-fifth of those whose life was snuffed out before birth by Roe vs. Wade.



The Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor cased the death of 2,300 Americans, and President Roosevelt, who surely cannot be accused of being politically right wing, stigmatized this occasion by calling it "a day of infamy." Now two "decades of infamy" have cost our nation a loss as great as 13,000 "Pearl Harbors."



Rest assured, therefore, your Honor, that this legacy of yours will ever be remembered and that your name will be associated with it. And unless you repent, when you appear before the Supreme Court of God you may well hear the verdict, "Your brothers; [and sisters'] blood cries out to me from the ground" (Genesis 4:10).



Sincerely,



Roger Nicole, Ph.D. (Harvard)



P.S. If your parents had practiced what you believe, you might have been aborted, and the United States might have been spared this abomination. If my parents had practiced it, you would not receive this letter.
]]> The Purpose of the Law http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007888 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007888 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:48:44 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

“What was God’s purpose in giving the Law?” is a huge question for Bible teachers. To say that “entire books have been written” about this is, in point of fact, an understatement! Entire interpretive schools have written and taught and lectured and preached all over this question time and time again.

 

Here are three points to which I hold:

 

The purpose of the law of God is to show

 

(1)    Each one of us our own sinfulness. Our sinfulness in deed and in thought. Through exposure to the law of God we recognize that we have violated an objective, external law of God. We also come to grips with the fact that we have violated our own internal, subjective senses of that law. There is none righteous, no not one.

(2)    Each one of us that we need a Savior, a mediator, One who will take the penalty in our place and keep the law in our place. This mediator was typified in the first law-giver (Moses himself) and also promised through that first law-giver as the True Prophet who was to come (see Exodus 18).

(3)    Each one of us the peace and blessing that would be ours if we would love the Lord and our neighbor. The Law is God’s description of the good life (see the Psalmist’s enjoyments in Psalm 119).

 
]]> why all the question marks? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007886 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007886 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:46:51 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

I really enjoyed this modern piece of poetry.

 

The poet (Taylor Mali) is just talking about what he sees and hears in the world.

 

His observation is so dead-on. The implications for those of us in the church -- who have God’s truth to share -- is inescapable.

 

I put up two links below. They are both to this same poem but in different formats. 

 

The first is the poet himself speaking it on stage and the second is the poem as a graphic text presentation.

 


 


 
]]> pray the ten http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007877 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007877 Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:23:29 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

In “A Simple Way to Pray” Martin Luther described how he uses the Ten Commandments as a guide in his prayer life:

 

I divide each commandment into four parts, thereby fashioning a garland of four strands.

That is, I think of each commandment as,

first, instruction, which is really what it is intended to be, and consider what the Lord God demands of me so earnestly.

Second, I turn it into a thanksgiving;

third, a confession;

and fourth, a prayer.

 
]]> e-harmony? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007876 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007876 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:21:32 PST Spencer DeBlog Who needs those Christian dating services when you can get great advice like this --


Young Christian people should seek to become the kind of person that the kind of person they would want to marry would want to marry. – D. Wilson
]]> And stare as long as sheep and cows http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007875 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007875 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:06:40 PST Spencer DeBlog  


The poem I shared yesterday while talking about the Sabbath:

 

W. H. Davies

 

WHAT is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?—

No time to stand beneath the boughs,

And stare as long as sheep and cows:

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass:

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night:

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance:

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began?

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

 

I love the line – And stare as long as sheep or cows.

 

I like it because it juxtaposes man with sheep and cows.

 

We, mankind, in our highly exalted and ultra-capable state rightly consider ourselves to be far, far above the beasts of the field. Fine. 

 

We think that our busy inability to stand and stare is part of our high humanity. Is it?

 

What are we missing? 

 

Didn’t our maker intend for us to use our image-bearing capacities to stop and contemplate this world and the One who made it?

 

 

 
]]> meditate on this http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007874 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007874 Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:02:30 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Here are the references distributed on Sunday morning. They are intended for further meditation upon the Ten Commandments.

 

1st Ex.15:1; Dt. 6:5; 2 Kings 17:29-39; Psalm 73:25; Matt. 4:10; Acts 14:15; 1 Thess. 1:9

 

2nd Dt. 4:15-19; Psalm 97:6,7, 116:4-9; Is. 44:9-20; Acts 17:29; Rom. 1:22-25; 1 John 5:21

 

3rd Dt. 10:20; Ps. 50:14-17; Matt. 5:33-37; James 5:12

 

4th Ex 23:12, 31:13-17; Rom 14:5; Gal. 4:10-11; Col. 2:16-17

 

5th Dt. 27:16; Prov. 23:22-26; Matt. 15:4-6; Eph 6:1-3

 

6th Gen. 9:6; Lev. 24:17-21; Matt. 5:21-26; Rom. 12:17-21; 1 John 3:15

 

7th Lev. 20:10-17; Prov. 5:1-23; Matt. 5:27-30; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; Eph. 5:3-7

 

8th Lev. 19:11-13; Amos 8:4-7; Rom 13:9-10; Eph. 4:28

 

9th Prov. 12:22, 19:9; Eph. 4:25; Col. 3:9-10

 

10th Gen. 3:6; Ps. 119:36; Luke 12:15; Rom. 7:7-13; Col 3:4-7; Heb 13:5
]]> pray for amy, ruby and andrew http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007867 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007867 Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:11:54 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Amy is in Iowa with Andrew and Ruby Johnson. 

 

Working with Andrew for my first few years here in Racine was a wonderful privilege. Andrew is a faithful and gifted Pastor. I would have loved to have kept him here but the Lord was calling him to the leadership of the church in Iowa.

 

Amy is speaking at their women’s retreat so please pray for her and for the women of Faith Evangelical Church in Radcliffe Iowa.

 

I am hacking away at chapter three of my project for school. I would love to send it in to my faculty advisor by next Friday. We’ll see!
]]> faithful shepherds http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007862 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007862 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:38:29 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I was down the hall meeting with one of our elders who took time out of his day to come in and give me counsel on a matter. I thanked him for taking the time and was reflecting about what a blessing it is for me to have a brother like him.

 

Then as I walked back to my office I received two messages, each from another elder. 

 

One was volunteering to help teach something I needed help teaching and the other was offering to help give care and counsel to a person who needed it.

 

God has been very good to me in giving me these men to labor alongside.

 

God has been very good to all in this flock in giving them such faithful shepherds.
]]> listen to me http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007859 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007859 Thu, 04 Feb 2010 07:15:29 PST Spencer DeBlog  

Psalms 4, 34, 64, 94, 124 this morning.  Each one gave me something sweet to meditate upon.


 

I think I am going to keep this one with me all day today.  Its from Psalm 34.


My action plan is to "keep from"  "depart from"  "do, seek and pursue!"


 

11 Come, you children, listen to me;

         I will teach you the fear of the LORD.

 12 Who is the man who desires life,

         And loves many days, that he may see good?

 13 Keep your tongue from evil,

         And your lips from speaking deceit.

 14 Depart from evil and do good;

         Seek peace and pursue it.

]]> I do. Do you? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007858 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007858 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:23:14 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Oswald Chambers in a letter to his sister, Dec 17, 1906:

 

You see, I believe that Jesus Christ our Lord has all power in heaven and on earth; do you? I find most people believe that He has all power in heaven, but are not sure about earth. I am finding out day by day more wonderful things about Jesus our Lord and what He can do.
]]> What I'm doing today http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007857 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007857 Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:35:12 PST Spencer DeBlog  


On my way up to Adell Wisconsin with Darien and John to meet with great like-minded Wisconsin pastors about our joint efforts to help train pastors in Kabardino-Bulkaria.


 

]]> An extraordinary normal prayer http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007854 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007854 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:05:20 PST Spencer DeBlog  


In elders meeting this morning the text we discussed was Romans 15:14-33.

 


23 But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you, 24 I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, 31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company

 


Paul’s prayer here is uniquely instructive and comforting.

Of all Paul’s prayers, why do I like this one so much?

 

Because it is so…

 

So normal.

 

He says things that we say like, “I plan to…” “I hope to…” “I am on my way….”

 

But if you know the rest of the story you know that his plans were not fulfilled and his way did not end up going exactly the way he had planned it to go.

 

Paul asked to be delivered from the persecutors in Judea. But he was in fact arrested because of their malicious influence.

 

He shares prayer requests about his travel plans for Spain. But the way Acts ends leads us to the conclusion that Paul never did complete those plans.

 

Paul did not know the end from the beginning. He labored with great zeal and prayed with great fervor. And he lived with God saying “Yes” or “Wait” or “No.” 

 

By the power of God’s Spirit, I am seeking to do the same. 

Are you?

 

]]> How to wreck your church in three weeks http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007852 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007852 Tue, 02 Feb 2010 06:20:43 PST Spencer DeBlog This post from Ray Ortlund is all too true!


How to wreck your church in three weeks

 

Week One:  Walk into church today and think about how long you’ve been a member, how much you’ve sacrificed, how under-appreciated you are.  Take note of every way you’re dissatisfied with your church now.  Take note of every person who displeases you.

 

Meet for coffee this week with another member and “share your heart.”  Discuss how your church is changing, how you are being left out.  Ask your friend who else in the church has “concerns.”  Agree together that you must “pray about it.”

 

 

Week Two:  Send an email to a few other “concerned” members.  Inform them that a groundswell of grievance is surfacing in your church.  Problems have gone unaddressed for too long.  Ask them to keep the matter to themselves “for the sake of the body.”

As complaints come in, form them into a petition to demand an accounting from the leaders of the church.  Circulate the petition quietly.  Gathering support will be easy.  Even happy members can be used if you appeal to their sense of fairness – that your side deserves a hearing.  Be sure to proceed in a way that conforms to your church constitution, so that your petition is procedurally correct.

 

 

Week Three:  When the growing moral fervor, ill-defined but powerful, reaches critical mass, confront the elders with your demands.  Inform them of all the woundedness in the church, which leaves you with no choice but to put your petition forward.  Inform them that, for the sake of reconciliation, the concerns of the body must be satisfied.

 

Whatever happens from this point on, you have won.  You have changed the subject in your church from gospel advance to your own grievances.  To some degree, you will get your way.  Your church will need three or four years for recovery.  But at any future time, you can do it all again.  It only takes three weeks.

 

 

Just one question.  Even if you are being wronged, “Why not rather suffer wrong?” (1 Corinthians 6:7).
]]> barnes and noble http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007851 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007851 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:52:07 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Somebody got me a Barnes and Noble Card for Christmas.

 

So I ordered online and the box arrived this weekend:

 

The Brothers Karamozov

The Essential Edgar Allen Poe Collection

Pascal’s Pensees (edited and explained by Peter Kreeft)

Heroes by Paul Johnson

The Chestnut King by N.D. Wilson
]]> Functional saviors http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007849 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007849 Mon, 01 Feb 2010 07:56:49 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Idolatry is a recurring theme in Scripture. It goes much deeper and is far more pervasive than most people think.

 

Today, there are many ways to talk about idolatry. I mentioned Tim Keller’s helpful book (Counterfit gods) yesterday. 

 

I also came across this concept from Jerry Bridges.

 

Jerry Bridges defines functional saviors in the following way:

 

Sometimes we look to other things to satisfy and fulfill us—to ‘save’ us. These ‘functional saviors’ can be any object of dependence we embrace that isn’t God. They become the source of our identity, security, and significance because we hold an idolatrous affection for them in our hearts. They preoccupy our minds and consume our time and resources. They make us feel good and somehow even make us feel righteous. Whether we realize it or not, they control us, and we worship them.

 
]]> give up anything rather than go against Him http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007840 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007840 Thu, 28 Jan 2010 09:57:17 PST Spencer DeBlog I love the way this reads.


I love the way life works when God's people live this way.


 


Q & A 94 Heidleberg Catechism

Q. What does the Lord require in the first commandment?

 

A. That I, not wanting to endanger my very salvation, avoid and shun all idolatry, magic, superstitious rites, and prayer to saints or to other creatures. That I sincerely acknowledge the only true God, trust him alone, look to him for every good thing, humbly, and patiently, love him, fear him, and honor him with all my heart.

In short, that I give up anything rather than go against his will in any way.
]]> a true story http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007837 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007837 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 10:36:50 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Driving my car yesterday.

 

I was thinking about a man in our church who has been through a really difficult situation.  I was feeling like a lousy pastor because I haven’t called him or visited him in a while. 

I took my feelings of guilt to God in confession and then (thankfully) quit thinking about myself and started just praying for this man.

 

About five seconds after I said amen, he drove up right next to me.

 

!!!
]]> I don't want to miss them http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007835 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007835 Wed, 27 Jan 2010 06:34:14 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Read this last night. 

I do experience these opportunities so frequently. 

I don’t want to miss a single one of them!

 

Every meeting with another person is a privilege. In pastoral conversations I have chances that many never get as easily or as frequently – chances to spy out suppressed glory, ignored blessing, forgotten grace. I had better not miss them. -- Eugene Peterson
]]> even if it was wrong... would I still pray? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007834 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007834 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:52:15 PST Spencer DeBlog Prayer is the vital breath of religion in the soul. It cultivates our sense of dependence and of God’s sovereignty. By confessing our sins, the sense of sin is deepened. By rendering thanks, gratitude is enlivened. By adoring the divine perfections, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory. From all this it is apparent that prayer is the Christian’s vital breath. If God had not required it, the Christian would be compelled to offer it by his own irrepressible promptings. If he were taught to believe that it was not only useless, but wrong, he would doubtless offer it in his heart in spite of himself, even though he were obliged to accompany it with a petition that God would forgive the offering. To have no prayer is, for man, to have no religion.  


Robert L. Dabney

]]> Anybody got a verse? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007832 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007832 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:02:32 PST Spencer DeBlog  


In pastor’s meeting today as an opening question I asked, “Who has a verse for us?”

 

The table was quiet for a couple of seconds and then Wayne spoke up.

 

This was the verse he shared:

 

For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

2 Corinthians 4:5

 

That was the perfect verse for pastor’s meeting.

 

It discloses our job description, our primary task, the key role that we play, and even provides the reason behind it all in the “for” clause at the close of the sentence.
]]> How to initiate gospel conversations http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007828 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007828 Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:45:37 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Do you want to share the gospel more frequently and more effectively?

Do you sometimes struggle with a lack of compassion or boldness?

 

The first half of this is funny and the second half is very helpful. 

Use this great advice to find needy hearts and open doors.

 

It is taken from an interview with Pastor J.D. Greear

 

 

How do you initiate Gospel conversations with people you interact with on a daily basis (waitresses, etc)?

I look for subtle metaphors to bring in spiritual things. For example, when I hand a coupon to the lady at the supermarket register, I say, "How much did I save? Speaking of saving, have I mentioned that great eternal coupon offered to each of us?" Or, when buying clothes, I say, "Here are the shirts I choose to buy. I did not, however, choose them from the foundation of the world like I was chosen..." Or, when my barista hands me my cup of hot coffee each morning, I say, "Wow, that's hot. Speaking of hot, how would you like to live in a scalding hot pot of coffee for all eternity?" Etc. People really seem to appreciate how aware I am of metaphors for their salvation.

Seriously, this is a good question, and I'd love to hear some other answers. Here are a few things I practice.


  • I frequent the same places. People in our society don't respond well to strangers, so I try to eat, drink coffee, buy gas, get my car worked on, and shop, etc at the same places. Relationship is not essential for evangelism, but it sure helps. At most of those places I mentioned people know me by name. Inevitably a chance comes up to pray for them, ask about their lives, invite them to church, etc. For example, several of the people from my local coffee shop have started to come to our church, and a few have become believers and gotten baptized. My mechanic has recently attended our church.

  • Where relevant, I leave BIG tips. Especially if I know someone is having a bad day. I'll jot a little note and tell them I'm praying for them.

  • I ask people, sometimes, how I can pray for them. Most people don't mind to be prayed for, and if they don't want to talk, they answer shortly and I let it drop.

  • I invite them to church. Over and over.

  • When in a conversation, I use an acrostic I learned years ago to help guide the conversation. F- Family; I- interests; R- Religion; E - Evangelism. Yes, that can seem wooden, I know... but it can also help you move a conversation along. Sometimes in talking about religion I'll say, "Do you feel like you have a relationship with God?" I get the most interesting responses back to that question. And usually, it provides me a chance to tell them my story... how I grew up in church but came to know God personally later. As I talk about how I came to know Christ, I make sure to give the Gospel along the way. People don't like to be preached to, but they do like to be asked their opinions, and they do like to hear your story.


 
]]> Friday update http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007825 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007825 Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:58:25 PST Spencer DeBlog Yesterday I stayed home sick.  Rested all day in hopes that this head cold and throat issue wouldn't get worse.  So far it hasn't.  I feel better today.  Felt well enough to take Rylie out for lunch.  We talked about the soils in Mark 4.  



A couple of things to pray about this weekend...



Pray for our RBC women who are in Lake Geneva for the women's retreat.  Carol B. is teaching from Hosea.



Pray for worship services Sunday.  I am preaching from Exodus 19 and 20.  We will be remembering Christ together in Communion.

]]> from my ipod http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007819 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007819 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:47:17 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I listened to The White Horse Inn yesterday. It was their 20th anniversary episode. 

 

I only catch this program once in a great while. It is usually thought provoking. For the most part I enjoy it -- though it is annoying to me when they belittle dispensational Bible teachers.

 

For this anniversary edition they played clips from some of their favorite prior programs. 

 

The most amazing one was the program they did with Robert Schuller. 

The hosts asked him questions right out of the Scripture and directly definitive of the gospel. The answers that Schuller gave were un-believable! 

 

He straight out answered their questions with statements like “I would never read that verse to people.” And “I guess I just don’t agree with the apostle Paul.”

 

!?!?!?!
]]> Pray for 20 minutes http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007817 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007817 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 08:30:39 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Pray for 20 minutes every morning
A simple guide for getting going with 20 minutes of prayer…
 
20 minutes is easy if you go 5 and 5 and 5 and 5.

 
5 minutes of prayers rising out of the Psalms.
 
When I wake in the morning and my prayer time gets rolling, I am… 
 
I am sleepy. I am groggy. I am also sinful and selfish.
 
Therefore I can’t pop out of bed oriented to sanctified, exemplary prayer. 
Can you?
 
To get started right - start with what you know works! Scripture itself!
Open to one Psalm and take a few verses from it as your own prayer. 
Repeat them in your own words to God.

 

5 minutes of prayers for yourself. 
Is it selfish to pray for yourself? Not necessarily. 
 
In fact, I think it can be humble and selfless to pray for yourself. How so?
 
Think of it like this. “What is my biggest problem? ME. What is the biggest barrier to other people being blessed by God through me? ME.”
So… I need to pray for myself.

 
What do you have before you today? Relationships that are precious to you. Events that are opportunities to do good. Commit to what you know God is calling you to. Confess sin. 

 

5 minutes of prayer for others. 
 
Friends, family, ministers, missionaries, others.
 
5 minutes of praise and thanksgiving.
 
The final 5 minutes is sweetest. Praise and thanksgiving and worship. I love to leave prayer with words of thanksgiving and worship. This orients my heart toward trust.
]]> prayer http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007814 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007814 Wed, 20 Jan 2010 06:42:27 PST Spencer DeBlog  


God spoke all the world into existence.

God speaks to us in His Word.

God’s Word forms words in our minds and hearts.

And now God calls us to speak back to Him in prayer.

 

]]> meeting highlights http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007811 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007811 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:07:28 PST Spencer DeBlog  



Highlights from RBC Board meeting last night:



Wayne sharing about men getting into the Word of God every day. It is so simple and yet it is what it’s all about. Wayne challenged each of these men to get into the Word – every day – for twenty one days in a row. They did it. Great things are happening.

 

Bob encouraging us to pray for greater boldness and faithfulness in personal evangelism.

 

Cinnamon roll kringle. Outstanding! Is this a new flavor? How come my mouth had never met this stuff before?

 

Sharing stories about individuals in our flock who are in extremely difficult situations and yet evidence supernatural joy and perseverance. 

 

Dan reading this passage to us at the close of our meeting:

 

“Come, everyone who thirsts,

come to the waters;

and he who has no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without price.

Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,

and delight yourselves in rich food.

Incline your ear, and come to me;

hear, that your soul may live…
]]> a correction http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007804 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007804 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:08:38 PST Spencer DeBlog It has come to my attention that I may have, however inadvertently, disparaged the good name of a certain youth pastor in my previous post.


Though all I wrote about him giving us as gifts our own stuff (and RBC's dish towels) is true...


There is a bit more to the story.


It has come to my attention that with the aforementioned "gifts" there was also a Chipotle gift card. 


A real gift. 


And he put a generous amount on it.


Thanks Dan.


 

]]> A few personal bests http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007801 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007801 Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:34:04 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

The best commercial I have seen in a long time:
 


 

The Sports Center guys in line behind Arnold Palmer making an Arnold Palmer.
 


 

The best book on parenting teenagers:

 
Age of Opportunity by Paul David Tripp

 
The best funny thing that happened yesterday:

 
A certain youth pastor dropped “belated Christmas presents” at our house. One for each of us. Wrapped and labeled so nicely! But they were mostly just our own stuff that my sons had left at his house. Amy’s was a towel from the RBC kitchen. Nice.
 


 

The best thing I read from a commentary during my Exodus study yesterday:
 


 

When we think of application, we tend to think of ourselves as the immovable point and the Old Testament as something that has to be brought into our lives. We think that it has to speak to our circumstances without always considering whether it is our particular circumstances that the Bible is designed to speak to.
 
There is another way of thinking about application. The book of Exodus is not waiting there for us to bring it into our world. Rather, it is standing there defining what our world should look like and then inviting us to enter that world. Who we are and what we are experiencing should not always be the starting point for thinking about how the Old Testament relates to us. (Peter Enns)
 


 

The best palindrome I have ever seen:

 
Go hang a salami, I’m a lasagna hog.
]]> Meaning and significance http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007797 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007797 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:05:22 PST Spencer DeBlog  


This is the type of thing I have been working on for school:

 

The sacred author’s intended meaning is the critical starting point but not an end in itself. The task of hermeneutics must begin with exegesis but is not complete until one notes the contextualization of that meaning for today. These are the two aspects entailing what E. D. Hirsch calls “meaning” and “significance” or the intended meaning for the author and his readers as well as its significance for the modern reader. 

 

The author’s intended meaning is a core that is unvarying. The significance is multiform and includes the implications of a text for individual readers as an application of the original meaning that varies depending on the diverse circumstances. 
]]> Some things are so obvious http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007795 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007795 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:55:50 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Some things are so obvious to us that we never see them.

 

I remember this little poem from someplace, perhaps you have heard it before…

 

Oh where is the sea the fishes cried,

As they swam the Atlantic waters through;

We’ve heard of the sea and the ocean tide

And we long to gaze on its waters blue.

 

The fishes didn’t notice the obvious. They “couldn’t see it” because it was all they saw all the time.

 

Lately I have been noticing the obvious. That sounds rather pathetic – but, for me, it has been rather profound.

 

In my Bible reading

In conversation with Amy

Giving counsel to friends

Dealing with people and situations

Prayer

 

In each of these areas, I have been noticing that the simplest, most basic elements of truth and the gospel are the most necessary. 

 

The funny thing is that these basic/obvious/so-simple-that-it-almost-seems-insulting-to-mention-it elements make the most difference. 

 

God is good.  God is wise. Christ’s cross is sufficient. Love one another.
]]> do you love charts? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007789 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007789 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 11:16:04 PST Spencer DeBlog I do not love charts.


 

But I do love studying the Bible.


 

I liked this post by Justin Taylor and his suggestion to draw up some charts for yourself.


 

One tip to help you understand the Bible better is read it with a pen or pencil in hand. Write down key words on a scratch of paper. Circle words in your Bible that are conceptually or linguistically similar. Underline key words. Doodle.


 


 
As part of the leadership team for the ESV Study Bible, one thing I wanted to make sure we included was a number of charts, because they can be helpful visual aids to make explicit the logical organization in a chapter.
 


 

In an earlier post on asking questions of the Bible, I suggested asking texts the journalistic questions (who, what, when, where, why, how).
 


 

Putting your answers in a chart allows you to see quickly the contrasts and similarities that the author is highlighting.


 

For example, take Hebrews 1:1-2a:


 

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son. . . .


 

 


 

It’s easy to read that quickly. But instead of skimming it, try breaking it down so that you can slow down and see more:
 
 
Who?
God
God
What?
spoke
spoke
When?
long ago
in these last days
How?
at many times, in many ways
(in one decisive way)*
To whom?
our fathers
[OT patriarchs]
us
[New Covenant people]
By whom?
the prophets
his Son
 
*implied

 
You can then move on to vv. 2b-3:


 

. . . whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. . . .


 

 


 

Here, instead of a chart, it might help simply to list the seven things that the author is affirming about who Jesus is and what he has done:


 


  1. Jesus is the God-appointed messianic heir of all things.
     
  2. Jesus is the creator of the world.
     
  3. Jesus is the radiance of God’s glory.
     
  4. Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s nature.
     
  5. Jesus is the upholder of the universe by his powerful word.
     
  6. Jesus is the one who made purification for our sins.
     
  7. Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God, the Majesty on high.
     


 

I haven’t added much to what the wording of the text says—just a clarifying word or two. But the value here is simply to “unpack” the contents—which can help us to meditate upon these distinct aspects of Christ’s splendor and work.


 


 
So my suggestion: get your Bible and try to make a chart today.

 

]]> blessings in the last 24 hours http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007787 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007787 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:16:10 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Enjoyed breakfast with eight of my favorite men this morning at the Golden Keys. I just love sitting around the table with men who are examples to me.

 

Apologized to a church member for something I should have handled differently and he forgave me. I just love how God’s grace enables us to forgive and accept each other.

 

Talked with Sam, Carly and Rylie about the sermons and discussions up at Fort Wilderness. I just love it when the Word of God is doing its work in the hearts of those dearest to me.

 

Read Proverbs 10 through12 and used it to fuel my prayer time this morning. I just love it when I find a verse that corrects me and God grants the grace of repentance. I also love it when He quickly shows me another one that lifts me up assures me of my calling in Christ.
]]> small is good http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007780 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007780 Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:08:28 PST Spencer DeBlog So we had a pretty small evening service last night.  We were up against two factors. 


 

First, lots of our people were away at Fort Wilderness and second, Packers playoff game.


 

So the attendance was pretty small.  And I loved it!


 

It was sweet to pray together.


 

I felt that the Psalms we read directed us particularly powerfully.


 

It kind of reminded me of a few times back in the day downtown.  When attendance was smaller we would move out of the sanctuary and into the chapel room with the chalkboards and comfy chairs. 

 


 

 

]]> i'm lonely but busy http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007772 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007772 Sat, 09 Jan 2010 08:19:30 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I sent one middle school son, one high school son, one high school daughter, and one super-fun wife up to winter camp this weekend.  Meaning I am home alone. (Not really alone if you count Judson).



 

My mission is to make some serious progress on the third chapter of my doctoral project.

I will not finish the chapter this weekend. But I want to get pretty far into it.



 

I've got the following lined up to assist me:

 

Gevalia coffee my mom gave me for Christmas

Yo-Yo Ma on Pandora radio

Two computers (1 for the internet radio and another for my typing)

A new mechanical pencil with a really nice feel to it

A very high stack of books and photocopied journal articles

 

And an actual passion for the subject matter (which is application in expository preaching)
]]> with my cheerios http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007771 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007771 Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:34:06 PST Spencer DeBlog   

So I'm reading Christianity Today this morning with my apple and cinnamon cheerios.
 
A good article by Ed Stetzer on the abuse of statistics by pastors and churches. We cherry-pick data, take it out of context, and make points or application that are not actually warranted by the data. Very common missteps. Good corrective.
 
The last article in the issue is an interview with an evangelical who is a White House Fellow. He quotes from Luke four, “preach good news to the poor.” He identifies poverty as the worst form of oppression. He ends up stating that raising the minimum wage is “a real moral imperative and an issue that Christians should be united around.” What?! Let's talk moral imperatives Christians must be united around. I'm pretty clear on that.
 
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
Repent of sin
Pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord
Go into all the world and preach the gospel
Love one another even as I have loved you
 
But raising the minimum wage? Really?
 
Lastly, there was a nice article about age-segregation in churches. The author nails the down-side of targeting churches toward a specific age-demographic. “A church family from the same generation isn't much of a family. We need a family where some of us experienced World War II in the trenches, and others experienced it by playing Call of Duty on our Xbox.” True.
 
By God's grace, we have that at RBC. I love it.
]]> Pray for our Youth Ministry http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007769 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007769 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 15:12:26 PST Spencer DeBlog Our junior and senior high school ministry leaves for Fort Wilderness Winter Retreat Friday!


Please be praying for...


Dan Miller as he leads the leaders and students.


The RBC youth staff who will be speaking the truth in love to our students.


Our young men and women to have ears to hear the Word of God, hearts broken and repentant over sin, and spirits that are humble and ready for change.


God is at work in the lives of these students and their families.  Pray that the great tranforming work of His gospel will continue and flourish.


 


 

]]> Living my life with all my might http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007768 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007768 Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:51:19 PST Spencer DeBlog Most of us made some sort of resolutions for the new year.


Our six pastors are currently sharing the pulpit on six areas of resolutions.


This short summation of Edwards' resolutions is particularly powerful. 


I might use it on Sunday evening for our corporate prayer time.


Lord God Almighty,

I understand that I am unable to do anything without your help,

so I ask you to enable me by your grace to fulfill your will.


Give me grace to do whatever brings most glory and honor to you,

pleasure and profit to me,

and life and love to others.


Help me to number my days,

spending my time wisely,

living my life with all my might while I still have breath.


Humble me in the knowledge that I am chief of sinners;

when I hear of the sins of others,

help me to not look upon them with pride,

but to look upon myself with shame,

confessing my own sins to you.


When I go through difficulties and trials,

remind me of the pains of hell

from which you have already delivered me.


Place people in my path who need my help,

and give me a compassionate and generous spirit.


Fill my heart with such love

that I would never do anything out of a spirit of revenge,

nor lose my temper with those around me.

Hold my tongue when I am tempted to speak evil of others.


Thank you for the gospel and for the hope of glory.

Help me to live in light of these truths every day of my life,

so that when the time of my death arrives,

I will rest assuredly in you,

and you will be most glorified in me.


In Christ’s name…


(This is an adaptation of Jonathan Edwards' resolutions made by Trevin Wax)

]]> Stop and listen http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007761 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007761 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 13:00:24 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I read this today. 


It matched up with some thinking and journaling I had already been sifting through so I really liked it.  Hope you do too. 





"A Time To Talk," by Robert Frost


When a friend calls to me from the road

And slows his horse to a meaning walk,

I don't stand still and look around

On all the hills I haven't hoed,

And shout from where I am, What is it?

No, not as there is a time to talk.

I thrust my hoe in the mellow ground,

Blade-end up and five feet tall,

And plod: I go up to the stone wall

For a friendly visit.


 

]]> Be here Sunday for something different http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007756 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007756 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 09:41:21 PST Spencer DeBlog

We are trying something different for the next couple of Sundays.

It is an idea that had been brewing in my mind for a while - and the first two Sundays of the new year seemed to be the right time to try it out.




We have six pastors on staff. 


Each of us is going to step up to the pulpit over the next two weeks.

Six new year's resolutions.  Six mini-messages.  Six different speakers.


Be here for a challenge from God's Word.  Spoken faithfully by men who love Him and love you.


 


 


 

]]> New Year's Eve http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007750 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007750 Wed, 30 Dec 2009 08:19:34 PST Spencer DeBlog Please join us for the New Year's Eve Communion Service at 7:00.


 

]]> Christmas Eve http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007736 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007736 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:58:26 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Please join us on Christmas Eve at 5:00.

 

Our worship service will last about an hour.

 

We will read Scripture, sing Christmas hymns and worship our Christ.
]]> what God can do http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007735 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007735 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:57:03 PST Spencer DeBlog  


When we depend upon organization,

we get what organizations can do;

when we depend upon education,

we get what education can do;

when we depend upon man,

we get what man can do;

but when we depend upon prayer,

we get what God can do.
]]> Avatar, Star Wars, The Lion King and the God who takes on flesh http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007733 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007733 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:09:42 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I really liked Ross Douthat's column from the New York Times. 

 

He writes about the James Cameron movie "Avatar" and makes some serious sense...

 

It’s fitting that James Cameron’s “Avatar” arrived in theaters at Christmastime. Like the holiday season itself, the science fiction epic is a crass embodiment of capitalistic excess wrapped around a deeply felt religious message. It’s at once the blockbuster to end all blockbusters, and the Gospel According to James. 

 

But not the Christian Gospel. Instead, “Avatar” is Cameron’s long apologia for pantheism — a faith that equates God with Nature, and calls humanity into religious communion with the natural world.

In Cameron’s sci-fi universe, this communion is embodied by the blue-skinned, enviably slender Na’Vi, an alien race whose idyllic existence on the planet Pandora is threatened by rapacious human invaders. The Na’Vi are saved by the movie’s hero, a turncoat Marine, but they’re also saved by their faith in Eywa, the “All Mother,” described variously as a network of energy and the sum total of every living thing.

 

If this narrative arc sounds familiar, that’s because pantheism has been Hollywood’s religion of choice for a generation now. It’s the truth that Kevin Costner discovered when he went dancing with wolves. It’s the metaphysic woven through Disney cartoons like “The Lion King” and “Pocahontas.” And it’s the dogma of George Lucas’s Jedi, whose mystical Force “surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together.”

 

 Today there are other forces that expand pantheism’s American appeal. We pine for what we’ve left behind, and divinizing the natural world is an obvious way to express unease about our hyper-technological society. The threat of global warming, meanwhile, has lent the cult of Nature qualities that every successful religion needs — a crusading spirit, a rigorous set of ‘thou shalt nots,” and a piping-hot apocalypse.

 

Douthat concludes the article with these words about man and nature...

 

Humans aren’t at home amid these cruel rhythms. We stand half inside the natural world and half outside it. We’re beasts with self-consciousness, predators with ethics, mortal creatures who yearn for immortality.

 

This is an agonized position, and if there’s no escape upward — or no God to take on flesh and come among us, as the Christmas story has it — a deeply tragic one.

 
]]> red snow http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007732 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007732 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:46:39 PST Spencer DeBlog  


After supper last night the boys and I hit up Lockwood for some night sledding.

 

Rylie took a jump, turned a complete 360 and landed it.

 

In the process of perfecting the trick, he bashed himself a bloody nose.

Red snow. 

 

I watched from the top of the hill to see what he would do.

He packed the dripping nose with snow and continued sledding.
]]> stop reading this blog? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007729 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007729 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:28:11 PST Spencer DeBlog  


"I’m amazed at the amount of time people spend on the internet. I’m not against technology, but all tools should be used to their best advantage. We should be spending our time on things that have staying power, instead of on the latest thought of the latest blogger—and then moving on quickly to the next blogger. That makes us more superficial, not more thoughtful.”—

J.I. Packer, in a recent world magazine

 

 

Do you have a handle on how much time you spend on the internet?

 

You actually do need to stop reading this blog so much if…

 

You don’t read the Word each and every day

You don’t ever read from that old-fashioned contraption known as a book

You haven’t dipped into the works of Ryle, Watson, Owen, Spurgeon, Lloyd-Jones, Bridges, Piper, MacArthur…

 

]]> sin dehumanizes http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007727 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007727 Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:53:40 PST Spencer DeBlog  


This hit me hard recently!

 

 

"Sin is fundamentally antisocial, because sin causes me to love me more than anything else and to care for me more than anything else."

"If sin turns me in on myself so that all I live for is me, then sin in its essence is antisocial. Living for myself and the satisfaction of my selfish desires dehumanizes the people in my life. No longer are they people to me. No longer are they objects of my affection and service. No, my loved ones and friends are reduced either to vehicles to help me get what I want or to obstacles in the way of what I want. "

Paul David Tripp

 

 

This hit me hard in relation to my own sin first and foremost. 

It also helps me as I respond to the sinning of those around me or help them respond to others sinning against them.

 

Colossians 3:12-14 comes to mind.

 

My sinful pride causes me to view others as those who owe me compassion, kindness, gentleness, respect and love. If they don’t deliver… then all sorts of bad things happen inside of me toward them.

The grace which is mine in Jesus Christ causes me to view others are those to whom I am empowered and enabled to manifest compassion, kindness, gentleness and patience.
]]> can't stop thinking about it http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007720 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007720 Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:40:55 PST Spencer DeBlog
 

If you were with us yesterday, you should remember this.


 

I went to sleep last night dreaming about it.


 

I awoke this morning praying that God will soon bring it to pass.


 

 


 

The Dream Isaiah Saw



Lions and oxen will sleep in the hay,

Leopards will join with the lambs as they play,

Wolves will be pastured with cows in the glade,

Blood will not darken the earth that God made.


 



Little child whose bed is straw,

Take new lodgings in my heart.

Bring the dream Isaiah saw:

Life redeemed from fang and claw.


 



Peace will pervade more than forest and field:

God will transfigure the violence concealed

Deep in the heart of systems of gain,

Ripe for the judgment the Lord will ordain.


 



Little Child whose bed is straw,

Take new lodgings in my heart.

Bring the dream Isaiah saw:

Justice purifying law.


 



Nature reordered to match God’s intent,

Nations obeying the call to repent,

All of creation completely restored,

Filled with the knowledge and love of the Lord.


 



Little child whose bed is straw,

Take new lodgings in my heart.

Bring the dream Isaiah saw:

Knowledge, wisdom, worship awe.



—Thomas H. Troeger

Lantz Professor of Christian Communication

Yale University Divinity School in his book

Borrowed Light: Hymn Texts, Prayers and Poems


 

© 1994 Oxford University Press


 

 

]]> Up to today http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007712 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007712 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 11:17:11 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Here's what I'm up to today...


 




  • Eating Junior Mints




  • Drinking Papa Nicholas French Roast




  • Working on Chapter Three of my doctoral project (I wanted to submit it by December 31 but I am starting to doubt that will happen)




  • Watching Amy make super-tacky holiday sweaters for the middle school Christmas party contest tonight. Rylie is going to look fantastic!




  • Anticipating a great opportunity to preach the gospel Sunday morning. Praying that I will live out the gospel between now and then.


     






 


 

]]> Are you ready to face your family? http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007710 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007710 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:22:15 PST Spencer DeBlog
Opening presents, grinning about sweaters you don't really like, having second helpings of your aunt's jello-salad, answering relative's questions about school or the weather or grades or jobs in a revolving pattern over and over again, sitting on the couch for the bowl games, playing monopoly with the cousins, peppermint cocoa...




We all have things we love and don't love so much about being together with extended family at Christmas.




I want to share a link here that just might be exactly what you need right now. I came across it this morning and it looks like a very helpful resource.




CCEF has made this short article available on their site.

 


 

Family Feuds: How to Respond


by Tim Lane

Christmas is coming and that means family get-togethers. But these celebrations are not always a picture postcard of family bliss. For some, these gatherings are dreaded and avoided when possible. Why is that? Why is it so hard to get along with the people you grew up with? Is there any hope that old, hurtful patterns can be changed? In this booklet, Tim Lane writes about these challenges and how through your relationship with Christ you can learn how to love your family and reach out to them in concrete and practical ways.


 

]]> i know what you should do next http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007706 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007706 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:59:52 PST Spencer DeBlog  


 

Not too long ago, I had lunch with one of our RBC men. 

A godly man who loves the Lord and puts that love to action in this church.

He told me that he is considering retirement.

 

As soon as I heard this, I said something like “If you do that… I know what God would want you to do next…”

 

We talked about his love for the Savior and the Lord’s grace in his life.

 

We shared about the Lord’s gifting in his life, and how that might be employed to build up this congregation.

What an encouragement!
]]> the more unquenchable http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007703 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007703 Thu, 17 Dec 2009 06:49:51 PST Spencer DeBlog  


David Brainerd described his spiritual desires this way –

 

“When I really enjoy God, I feel my desires of Him the more insatiable, and my thirstings after holiness the more unquenchable. And the Lord will not allow me to feel as though I were fully supplied and satisfied, but keeps me still reaching forward.”

 

I get what he is saying. 

 

The more I reflect on God’s goodness and grace in the gospel the more I want these meditations to continue. It builds and builds, grace upon grace. 

 

Take time today (more time than you initially think you need) to remember God’s goodness and the full, free, forever pardon that is ours at the cross.

 
]]> words from the fire http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007701 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007701 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:52:36 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I am reading (actually skimming) Dr. Mohler's book "Words from the Fire" subtitled "Hearing the voice of God in the Ten Commandments.”

I like it a lot.

I checked it out from the RBC church library. 

It is overdue. But I know the librarians and I suspect they will forgive me.

Mohler treats each commandment in its canonical development biblically and deals with it contemporary relevance culturally. His insights always impress me.

My problem is that, since I want to move us through the Pentateuch in one year, I can only take a week or two on the Ten Commandments.

Each one deserves to be drilled down into. 

But there is great value in climbing up and surveying all ten at once too.
]]> God loves it when we pray http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007700 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007700 Wed, 16 Dec 2009 09:28:40 PST Spencer DeBlog  


This good word on prayer comes from Kevin Deyoung:

 

If you know you are needy and believe that God helps the needy, you will pray. Conversely, if we seldom pray, the problem goes much deeper than a lack of organization and follow through. The heart that never talks to God is the heart that trusts in itself and not in the power of God.  Prayerlessness is unbelief.

Prayerfulness, on the other hand, is an evidence of humility and faith, which is why God loves it when we pray.
]]> one of my very favorite passages http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007694 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007694 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 11:31:16 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Read Philippians 1:3-11 with the elders this morning.

So many stand-out phrases in that passage. And they are structured together in such an interesting construction which is, in itself, instructive.

 

I can’t quit thinking about it.

 

3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, 4 always offering prayer with joy in my every prayer for you all, 5 in view of your participation in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 For it is only right for me to feel this way about you all, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers of grace with me. 8 For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ; 11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

 

Verse 3 – Am I thankful for the people surrounding me in the body of Christ? Do I speak out about that thanksgiving to God and to them?

 

Verse 5 - Partnership in the gospel is what it is all about. The commonality we have in Christ is the only true and lasting commonality that matters.

 

Verse 6 – Do I share with those around me that my confidence is in God for them until the future day of Jesus Christ.

 

Verse 7 -- I have deep feelings that are stirred by seeing people partake of and participate in the grace of the gospel. Be on the lookout for God’s grace in the lives of people. Treasure it. Dwell on it. Soak in it. Remember it.

 

Verse 8 – There is a longing and affection inside of me that that can only be explained as “of Christ Jesus.”

 

Verse 9 – Love starts it all. Love prompted the Father to send His Son. This love draws us into the gospel. Now that love fires in us so that we progress and participate in the gospel.

 

Verses 9b and 10 – Love has limits. Love develops along specific lines of knowledge and discernment. Love causes right choices, excellent choices, spiritually discriminating choices to be made. Am I increasing in knowledge and discernment? Is that increase arising alongside of an increase in love? Look for the evidence of this in the choices that I make. 
]]> suggested office improvement http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007692 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007692 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 09:42:35 PST Spencer DeBlog  


I left my lunch in the car this morning.  Poor bag has been sitting out there since 5:30am.  It froze.

 

I’m eating a banana a day (doctor’s orders about something not too serious sounding about my potassium level).  I am following orders.  One banana.  Every day.

 

But today the banana is kinda frozen. 

 

Too bad I can’t find any chocolate magic shell. 

We should really keep that stuff on hand here at the office.
]]> He will never leave them http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007691 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007691 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 07:03:28 PST Spencer DeBlog Here is a great word about the gospel from JC Ryle...


 


Let us take comfort in the thought that the Lord Jesus does not cast off His believing people because of failures and imperfections.

He knows what they are.

He takes them, as the husband takes the wife, with all their blemishes and defects, and, once joined to Him by faith, will never leave them. He is a merciful and compassionate High priest. It is His glory to pass over the transgressions of His people, and to cover their many sins.”

-         J.C. Ryle

Let that word sink in.


Sin in your life?  Failure?  Frustration?  Trouble?


He has taken you as His own and, once joined to you, He will never leave you.


 

]]> the aforementioned pictures http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007688 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007688 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 13:09:35 PST Spencer DeBlog Cutest choir in the world -



These four are adorable -



These four are no longer kids, but I think they are still cute --



 

]]> with a merciful posture http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007687 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007687 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:15:31 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Kindness isn’t a personality trait, it’s a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) and an expression of biblical love (1 Corinthians 13:4). Kindness does not have its origins in you, but in God. Kindness says to our spouse, “I know you are a sinner like me and you will sin against me, just like I sin against you. But I refuse to live defensively with you. I’m going to live leaning in your direction with a merciful posture that your sin and weakness cannot erase.”

Dave Harvey “When Sinners Say I Do”

 


How I long for this attitude in me toward my own marriage!

 

And how deeply I long for all the marriages represented at Racine Bible to be filled with this expression!!

]]> pictures http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007686 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007686 Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:19:59 PST Spencer DeBlog Amy took a bunch of pictures on yesterday.


I will try to post them up here on the blog tonight when I get home.


The pictures are from the first service Sunday.  We had a great time here and all the kids made a joyful noise!


I love to pray for those adults who serve in the Crosswalk ministry, faithfully teaching and leading our kids.  I pray for that they will be enabled to minister with the strength that God supplies and that the joy of the Lord will be their strength.


 

]]> marriage http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007678 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007678 Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:08:59 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Amy shared some things with me recently that she had been learning from the Lord. I love the way the Lord gets at me through her. 

 

It is a crowning blessing to share common commitment to Christ with your spouse.

 

Give thanks if you are among those who do.

Cherish it and be filled with the Spirit.

 

I know many men and women (many more than I wish) who love the Lord yet are hindered from enjoying that love with their spouse.  Please pray for them.

 


If you are privileged to be in a marriage in Christ, guard it, and feed it with prayer and faith and joy and love.


 

 
]]> We didn't cancel http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007676 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007676 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:40:01 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Here I am at church on Wednesday night.

 

Watching the weather predictions yesterday…

We all figured we would probably have to cancel. 

 

But I just walked the halls and every room is full. From the cubbies on up to the high schoolers. 

I even heard people practicing their singing in the music room.

I love being with all of these people.

 

I think I will head back out and walk around again.
]]> Sin is subtle where we are strong http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007675 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007675 Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:23:14 PST Spencer DeBlog  

Ouch.  This hit my like a ton of bricks today!


 

We foolishly assume that our real struggles with sin are in the areas where we are "weak." We do not well understand the depth of sin until we realize that it has made its home far more subtly where we are "strong" and in our gifts rather than in our weaknesses and inadequacies. It is in the very giftedness God has given that sin has been at its most perverse and subtle! -- Sinclair Ferguson
]]> the modern worship of progress and novelty http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007667 http://www.racinebible.org/site/blogview2.asp?sec_id=140000450&forum_id=140002464&topic_id=140007667 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:20:53 PST Spencer DeBlog  


Over Thanksgiving I read another Chesterton story, The Club of Queer Trades. 


I laughed out loud.


A lot.


He takes these witty shots at our contemporary, short-sighted errors while describing his colorful characters throughout the narrative. 


Here is one that made me laugh…


 ‘A perfectly good fellow. Lord Beaumont of Foxwood—don’t you know his name? He is a man of transparent sincerity, a nobleman who does more work than a navvy, a socialist, an anarchist, I don’t know what; anyhow, he’s a philosopher and philanthropist. I admit he has the slight disadvantage of being, beyond al